He began his career as a desk assistant at WCBS-TV in New York and worked for several years as an assignment editor, producer and reporter at KHOU-TV in Houston, Texas.
The invasion of Grenada, civil war in Nicaragua and El Salvador, a deadly volcanic eruption in Colombia and drug lords were all part of his watch in the 1980s.
Before Dateline, Murphy was posted in NBC's London bureau as chief foreign correspondent for Today where his stories took him around the world: Japan, Thailand, India, Africa, the Middle-East and Europe.
[citation needed] His major assignments included the revolutions of Eastern Europe in 1989, German unification, the last days of Margaret Thatcher, funerals of the Ayatollah and Emperor Hirohito.
[citation needed] Murphy also covered the plight of the Kurds in Iraq following the Gulf War and reported in the early 1990s from hot spots such as Baghdad, Bosnia and Mogadishu.