Lowell Bergman

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Lowell Bergman (born July 24, 1945, in New York City). He 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 15 years.

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[edit] Early history

Bergman's career spans more than 35 years. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with Honors in Sociology and History, 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 an expose on tobacco companies on the air, and is temporarily censored by CBS because of the risk of being sued by one of them. Although the story eventually airs, the conflicts between Bergman and the network eventually lead to his departure. The controversial success surrounding The Insider, and its alleged 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] Reporting Across Multiple Platforms

An early adopter and advocate of the multimedia model, Bergman forged an alliance between The New York Times and Frontline after leaving network news in the late 1990s. 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], and "News War" [11]. Drawing on more than 80 interviews [12] with key figures in the print, broadcast and electronic media, and with unequaled, behind-the-scenes access to some of today's most important news organizations, FRONTLINE examines the challenges facing the mainstream news media, and the media's reaction, in this special four-part series. 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.” [13]

Collaborating with other New York Times reporters, Bergman helped produce a series of in-depth articles detailing the financial arrangements between Vice President Dick Cheney and Halliburton, both before and after his retirement as C.E.O. of that firm to re-enter politics.[14][15][16]

[edit] Awards and honors

Mr. Bergman has received top honors in both print and broadcasting. He shared the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service [17] 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. That story, which appeared as both a print series and a documentary, is the only winner of the Pulitzer Prize also to be acknowledged with every major award in broadcasting.

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.

[edit] Academic Highlights

In addition to being a mentor to upcoming journalists from around the world, working with and directing them on major investigations, he also serves as the conduit between student projects and their publication in some of the country’s top media outlets. Projects produced out of Mr. Bergman’s investigative reporting seminars at the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California at Berkeley have reached substantial audiences with significant impact, appearing on national television, including PBS' Frontline and Frontline/World, as well as ABC's Nightline, CBS Evening News and 60 Minutes II; and in print, where students have been the primary authors or contributors of stories that have appeared in the pages of The New York Times, Los Angeles Times and San Francisco Chronicle, as well as a wide variety of magazines and international and local newspapers. This work, especially in recent years, has proven that investigative reporting written and produced by students – and guided by veteran reporters – can help raise the standards of journalism nationally.

Mr. Bergman also helps in securing financial support from both private donors and foundations for travel and research expenses that facilitate the students’ work.

In 2007, Mr. Bergman spearheaded the effort to establish three annual Fellowships in Investigative Reporting at UC Berkeley. This year-long program is without peer at any academic institution in the nation and is designed to nurture young journalists who want to pursue a career in in-depth public service reporting by providing them with a salary, benefits and editorial guidance.

[edit] Interviews

  • [18] "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."
  • [19] 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 February 27, 2007, Bergman was interviewed [20] by Terry Gross of WHYY's Fresh Air about the Frontline documentary "News War: Secrets, Spin and the Future of the News." The four-part series, which Bergman co-produced, is about the mainstream news media and the political, legal and economic forces acting on it. The third installment looks at how the pressure for profits and shifting advertising dollars are affecting the news business. News War web site [21]
  • On February 27, 2007 Bergman was interviewed [22] by Marketplace's Kai Ryssdal about how the Internet has changed journalism. Listen at [23]

[edit] External links

  • May 2006 [25] "Lowell Bergman named distinguished professor", UC Berkeley press office.
  • [26] "2004 Pulitzer Prize Winners". Winning entries at: [27]
  • [28] Lowell Bergman's home page at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism.
  • [29] May 2003 speech at the International Reporting Project, The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), Johns Hopkins University.
  • [30] 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.
  • [31] CNN on "The Insider," November 1999.
  • [32] A chronology of the "60 Minutes" decision not to air the tobacco industry exposé. 1999.
  • [33] May 5, 2007. Lowell Bergman joins The New York Times' Tim Wiener, CIA chief historian David Robarge, former FBI espionage chief Mike Rochford, former CIA veterans Norb Garrett and Milt Bearden and Eric Roth, screenwriter of "The Good Shepherd" to discuss the myths and reality of intelligence and counterintelligence. Sibley Auditorium, UC Berkeley.
  • In May 2007, Mr. Bergman and the Investigative Reporting Program announce [34] a competition for three year-long investigative reporting fellowships at The Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley, the first of their kind in the nation. "With the economics of major news organizations deteriorating," said Lowell Bergman, the professor in charge of the Investigative Reporting Program, "this kind of public interest journalism involving time-consuming investigative work is endangered as never before. These fellowships will provide both a refuge and a base of operations for a new generation of investigative reporters."
  • May 24, 2007 Watch Mr. Bergman's keynote [35]address, "More Than Five Years After 9/11, What Is The True Threat Of Al Qaeda?" at the fourth Global Investigative Journalism Conference in Toronto.
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