THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

Friday, January 25, 1985

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. Murray Feldman looks at the finished product, a video taped news report prepared or the evening news broadcast.

Murray Feldman Appreciation Day.
They were mementos which he treas-
ures but keeps in storage, not on dis-
play.
Ostentatious flamboyance is not
Feldman's style. On location he moves
unobstrusively to set up an interview,
working in joking rapport with the
camera crew for whom he has "enor-
mous respect." "They are just as much
journalists as I am," he says. "They can
make a story. I've learned so much
from them." He chats quietly to put
people at ease, takes a few quiet ma=
ments to think things through. There
is no last minute hair-patting or tie-
straightening — just a relaxed and
reassuring smile before filming be-
gins.
"What I try to do on the air," he
says, "is just be myself, not think 'How
would CBS or someone else do this
story?' just 'How would Murray
Feldman tell it, if he were sitting with
somebody in his living room.' "
"Go out there and be yoursel' was
the very welcome briefing Feldman
received from Channel 2 when he first
arrived. Before coming he had been
fearful of being required to suppress
his Jewish identity. "I thought, 'Gee, I
hope they don't want me to change my
name, because I won't do it.' I knew
that in some big cities, and for a long
time in this one, way back before I
came, people with ethnic names would
have to change them to something that

blended in with the woodwork.
"But when I got here, that was the
farthest thing from their minds. They
were happy to have me for who I was
and what I was..The day I arrived they
said that it was very important to have
Jewish representation on the air and
that there was somebody who could
give input into the way they did
Jewish stories — pertaining to Israel,
or - the Jewish community here, or
whatever. I felt that was good.
"I'm told," he continues, "that
when I came to town, I was the first
Jewish reporter to appear regularly on
a news program. There was a
sportscaster and a weatherman, but
nobody out there in the newsroom with
a strong Jewish name."
Some of the stories he has been
called on to report have been "sticky,"
such as the one dealing with the open-
ing of a Nazi bookstore in southwest
Detroit. "That was hard profession-
ally," he admits, "because of the way I
felt about the topic, but it was reward-
ing in that I felt very strongly that I
was getting out information that there
was a need to tell." I t also resulted in
an unexpected tribute to his profes-
sionalism, when the store's spokesmen
refused, the following day, to talk to a
different reporter, saying that they
would only speak to Feldman because
they thought he was fair.
Many of the Jewish stories he
covers, however, give him great pleas-

ure, like a feature on Chanukah ob-
servance which was one of his first as-
signments. He likes having the oppor-
tuniy to wish viewers "Happy
Passover" in Hebrew, which "like most
of my generaton, probably, I don't
speak as much as I'd like to, but
enough to get by."
Feldman also enjoys invitations to
speak at various functions in the
Jewish community. (Within the next
few weeks he is scheduled to speak at a
breakfast at Cong. Beth Shalom and a
dinner at Temple Beth El.) "I enjoy
them not only because I like to get out
and speak to people," he says, "but be-
cause it's good to feel a part of the
community. When I first got here, the
Jewish community seemed so big: It
isn't really, compared to some other
metropolitan areas, but it's close and
that makes it seem bigger than it is.
That's a tribute to the people who live
here."
Feldman said he feels a close asso-
ciation not only with the Jewish com-
munity, but with metropolitan Detroit
as a whole. "One of the first stories I
did- here was about the auto workers,
working overtime to meet the de-
mand," he recalls. "Within four years
they were out of work and the strug-
gles and the hurt in this area were
almost too much to take.
"It was dreadful to do stories on
people who were living in their cars,
people who were moving to another

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city. You don't go home and be happy
after day-in, 'day-out of that kind of
story. Now, I'm happy to come home,
because you see that it's changing. It's
not all gone, but there is light at the
end of the tunnel."
The variety of his work is what
appeals to him most. "Every once in a
while it's nice to have a really big,
breaking story, where you have to
think and act fast. It shows you that
your instincts are still good, but if it's
all intense you can get burned out very
quickly. I like doing stories about
people and the things which affect
them."
About 60 to 70 percent of his time
is spent out on the street, sometimes
out of town covering topics which
range from a highjacking in
Kalamazoo or a Presidential visit, to a
report on bad weather traffic condi-
tions or the difficulties of finding a
parking place in the holiday season.
Occasionally he acts as news an-
chorman, which he enjoys, although
he doesn't want to do it full time. "I
love being out on the street, meeting
different people, doing different
things," he says.
In the newsroom his activities are
varied too. They include writing his
own material, editing tapes, recording
voice-overs, phoning contacts, follow-
ing up leads and taking the time to
teach others. "He is," according to

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