Death of a PR Man

Tex McCrary, a legendary New York public relations man and political strategist who helped invent the talk-show format on radio and TV, has died at the age of 92. His obituary in the New York Times notes that McCrary helped elected President Eisenhower after serving as a public relations officer for the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II. Richard Severo notes that McCrary also "became one of the first Americans to visit Hiroshima after the atomic bomb was dropped. He advised journalists not to write about what they had seen because he did not think Americans could stand to know 'what we've done here.' John Hersey later told the story for The New Yorker. 'I covered it up, and John Hersey uncovered it,' Mr. McCrary said years later. 'That's the difference between a PR man and a reporter.'"