'Raising Questions; Finding Answers'

 

“You can have all the information you want in the world. If you don't have the people raising questions and looking beneath the surface, and people being paid to do this, you're not going to find the answers."  – Lowell Bergman

 

Born in New York City on July 24, 1945 Bergman has had one of the most prestigious careers in American journalism, working nearly 6 decades in print and television news and teaching journalism while earning almost every major journalistic award. 

 

A native of New York City, Bergman studied at the University of Wisconsin and UC-San Diego and co-founded the San Diego Free Press.  After stints at the San Francisco Examiner and Rolling Stone, he moved over to TV as a producer, reporter and then executive in charge of investigative reporting at ABC News.  An original producer of 20/20, he joined CBS News as a producer for 60 Minutes, where over the course of 14 years he produced more than 50 stories, many Emmy winners.

 

His investigative story into the tobacco industry was chronicled in the film The Insider, a gripping tale of investigative journalism.   After leaving CBS he worked 10 years as an investigative correspondent for The New York Times, winning a Pulitzer Prize for the series “A Dangerous Business,” which detailed a record of worker safety violations coupled with the systematic violation of environmental laws in the cast-iron sewer and water pipe industry.

 

  Named by the Society of Professional Journalists for its James Madison Freedom of Information Award for Career Achievement, Bergman retired in 2019.