Lowell Bergman
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Lowell Bergman (born July 24, 1945) is an investigative reporter with The New York Times and a producer/correspondent for the PBS documentary series Frontline. Mr. Bergman is also the Reva and David Logan Distinguished Professor at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism [1], where he has taught a seminar dedicated to investigative reporting for over 10 years.
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[edit] Early History
Bergman's career spans more than 35 years. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and was a graduate fellow in philosophy at UC San Diego, where he studied under Herbert Marcuse. By 1969 he co-founded San Diego Free Press (later San Diego Street Journal), an alternative newspaper, with several fellow students. He went on to contribute to Ramparts and San Francisco Examiner. He later worked as an associate editor at Rolling Stone.
In 1977, he helped found the Center for Investigative Reporting [2]. He was part of the reporting team that continued the work of Arizona Republic reporter Don Bolles, who was assassinated in 1976 while investigating land fraud committed by organized crime.
[edit] Television career
From 1978 until 1983, Bergman was a producer, reporter and then executive in charge of investigative reporting at ABC News. He was one of the original producers of 20/20. In 1983, Bergman joined CBS News as a producer for the weekly newsmagazine 60 Minutes, where over the course of 14 years he produced more than 50 stories, from organized crime, international arms dealing and drug trafficking to the Iran-Iraq and Persian Gulf wars. He also produced the first U.S. television interviews with Lebanon's Hezbollah leadership.
The story of Bergman's investigation of the tobacco industry for 60 Minutes was chronicled in the 1999 Academy Award-nominated feature film The Insider [3]. In the film, Bergman (portrayed by Al Pacino) tries to get a potentially libelous expose on tobacco companies on the air, and is temporarily censored by CBS. Although the story eventually airs, the conflicts between Bergman and the channel eventually lead to his departure. The controversial success surrounding The Insider, and its negative characterization of 60 Minutes correspondent Mike Wallace (acted by Christopher Plummer) and producer Don Hewitt (Philip Baker Hall), led to Bergman's virtual blacklisting from the show. [4]
[edit] Current Projects
An early adapter and advocate of the multimedia model, Bergman forged an alliance between The New York Times and Frontline. The collaboration resulted in a series of stories including California's energy crisis; the country's war on drugs; the rise of Islamic fundamentalism; the roots of 9/11; the credit card [5] and gold industries; the post-9/11 hunt for "sleeper cells" [6] in America; and Al Qaeda's recent attacks in Europe [7]. It also yielded a number of award-winning projects -- all with print, broadcast and online components. Extensive Web sites prepared in large part by students in Bergman's seminar have accompanied many of these projects, i.e.: "Secret History of the Credit Card" [8], "Al Qaeda's New Front," [9], "The Enemy Within", [10]. The Poynter Institute has called these sites a “prime example of what many who touted "convergence journalism" hoped might happen -- journalism that leverages the strengths of each media to tell a more complete story than any one media could tell on its own.” [11]
[edit] Awards and Honors
Mr. Bergman has received top honors in both print and broadcasting. He shared the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service [12] with The New York Times in 2004 for “A Dangerous Business,” which detailed a record of egregious worker safety violations coupled with the systematic violation of environmental laws in the iron sewer and water pipe industry.
He is also the recipient of numerous Emmys and other honors, including five Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University silver and golden awards, three Peabodys, a Writers Guild Award, the National Press Club's Consumer Journalism Award for Television, a George Polk Award, a Sidney Hillman award for labor reporting and the James Madison Freedom of Information Award for Career Achievement from the Society of Professional Journalists. He is a lifetime member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
[edit] Interviews
- [13] "Smoke In The Eye: a Talk With Lowell Bergman," PBS "Frontline" (1999). "There's a major difference between 'All The President's Men' and 'The Insider,'" Lowell Bergman has said of the comparison between the 1976 film on Watergate and Hollywood's new version of the events depicted in FRONTLINE'S report, "Smoke in the Eye." "In 'All the President's Men,' the editors and reporters are heroes. That's not the case here."
- [14] A "Long March through the Institution" of Television Journalism; Conversation with Lowell Bergman. Part of the "Conversations with History" series, Institute of International Studies, UC Berkeley with Harry Kreisler, (2001)
- On September 27, 2006, Bergman appeared on The Colbert Report.
[edit] External links
- [15] "Lowell Bergman named distinguished professor", UC Berkeley press office, (May 2006)
- [16] "2004 Pulitzer Prize Winners". Winning entries at: [17]
- [18] Lowell Bergman's home page at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism.
- [19] May 2003 speech at the International Reporting Project, The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), Johns Hopkins University.
- [20] Bergman and former Attorney General John Ashcroft talk about the government's investigation of terrorism and national security since 9/11, The Charlie Brennan Show, KMOX, October 10, 2006.
- [21] CNN on "The Insider," November 1999.
- [22] A chronology of the "60 Minutes" decision not to air the tobacco industry exposé. 1999.
