Lowell Bergman, Producer/Correspondent, "Frontline" and The New York Times; Former Staff Producer, "60 Minutes"
Stephen Talbot, Writer/Producer, “Frontline”; Series Editor, Frontline World
The Commonwealth Club, San Francisco
Changes and Challenges to Journalism
Two of the nation’s best-known investigative journalists will discuss the challenges today’s media must confront in its efforts to comprehensively and accurately report on world events. Bergman and Talbot will specifically examine the War on Terror and other global forces that continually change the role of a free press in our society. The program coincides with the airing of “News War”, a special four-hour PBS “Frontline” series examining the political, cultural, legal, and economic forces facing the news media today and how the press has reacted in turn.
Lowell Bergman is perhaps best known for his 15 years as a producer at CBS's "60 Minutes," where his crusade to expose the truth behind the tobacco industry became the focus of the 1999 Oscar nominated movie, "The Insider," starring Al Pacino and Russell Crowe. Since then, he has been a producer and correspondent of numerous PBS Frontline Documentaries related to the recent military action in the Middle East. For “Frontline,” Bergman produced the first U.S. television interviews with Lebanon’s Hezbollah leadership and initiated several award winning projects, including print, broadcast, and online components. As an investigative reporter and frequent contributor to the The New York Times, Bergman was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service in 2004 for his exposé, “A Dangerous Business,” detailing worker safety and environmental violations in the iron sewer and water pipe industry.
Stephen Talbot has worked for “Frontline” since 1992, when he produced “The Best Campaign Money Can Buy,” about that year’s presidential campaign. Ten years ago, he made a documentary for the program called “Why America Hates the Press” and now returns to that subject in “What Happened to the News?” one of the episodes in the four-part “News War” series. In 2005, he and his colleagues at “Frontline World” won the Edward R. Murrow Award from the Overseas Press Club of America for best TV documentary coverage of international affairs.
This program was recorded live on January 11, 2007 at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco.