Outside of his tenure in the CBS Rome bureau , Downs spent much of his later career at CBS in Washington covering presidential elections with other members of the Murrow Boys . He accompanied both candidates on the campaign trail during the 1952 presidential election , and reported from the Republican National Convention in Chicago . At one point , he was among a crowd of reporters on the floor as vice presidential candidate Richard Nixon gave a press conference , with Murrow and Cronkite in the anchor booth for CBS . Producer Don Hewitt told him to remove his headset and place it on Nixon so that Murrow and Cronkite could speak to him directly . He did so , handed Nixon his microphone , and told him " Walter Cronkite and Ed Murrow want to talk to you . " Nixon went on the answer their questions , audible only to him . This practice of placing headsets on personalities to talk to Cronkite became a CBS trademark and joke
Republican National Convention
1952 Republican National Convention
Bill Downs