Convocation: Lowell Bergman

Lowell Bergman is a producer/correspondent for the PBS documentary series “Frontline” and contributes investigative reports to The New York Times. As a professor at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, Bergman has for over 15 years taught a seminar dedicated to investigative reporting. His far-ranging projects have included investigations into the war on drugs, the rise of Islamic fundamentalism, the credit card and gold industries, Al Qaeda's recent attacks in Europe, and the domestic energy crisis. Additionally, he has worked across the media spectrum – print, broadcast and electronic media – and along the way won the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service and every major award in broadcasting, including numerous Emmys, Peabodys, and a Writers Guild Award. Bergman has noted that the news business, as is its wont, was ahead of everyone else. It was collapsing long before the stock market went into free fall and the economy teetered on a new Depression. Today the news business is struggling to survive, if not as a profitable business, as a profession that serves the public interest. In his presentation, Bergman offered a look back at how we got here and a prediction about "The Future of News."