Lowell Bergman is the Emeritus Reva and David Logan Distinguished Chair in Investigative Journalism at the Graduate School of Journalism where he taught its first class in investigative reporting in 1991. That evolved into a seminar and then the school’s Investigative Reporting Program (IRP) which he founded in 2006. Retiring from the chair in 2019, he continues as President of the board of Investigative Studios. Founded in 2017 this unique nonprofit production company formally affiliated with UC Berkeley is dedicated to supporting the IRP, and continuing the tradition of wedding creating original public interest journalism. Bergman spent three decades working in national television news with ABC, then CBS’ “60 Minutes,” and PBS’ documentary series “Frontline.” His work has been honored with multiple Emmys, duPonts and Peabody’s. His “60 Minutes” investigation of the tobacco industry was dramatized in 1999 in the Academy Award-nominated feature film “The Insider.” In 2004, The New York Times received journalism’s highest honor, the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service, for his work with David Barstow and two Berkeley graduate students on “A Dangerous Business,” which detailed thousands of egregious worker safety and environmental violations in the iron pipe and other industries. The documentary also received every major award in broadcasting. Bergman was a New York Times correspondent until 2008 and a senior producer and consultant to Frontline until 2015.
Investigative reporting.
