Danny Schechter

Danny Schechter "is a television producer and independent filmmaker who also writes and speaks about media issues. He is the author of "Falun Gong's Challenge to China" (Akashic Press), "The More You Watch, The Less You Know" (Seven Stories Press) and "News Dissector: Passions, Pieces and Polemics" (Electron Press). He is the executive editor of the MediaChannel.org, the world's largest online media issues network.

"He has produced and directed many TV specials and films, including "Falun Gong's Challenge to China" (2000); A Hero for All: Nelson Mandela's Farewell (l999); Beyond Life: Timothy Leary Lives (1997); Sowing Seeds/Reeping Peace: The World of Seeds of Peace (1996); Prisoners of Hope (1995, co-directed by Barbara Kopple); Countdown to Freedom: Ten Days that Changed South Africa (1994), narrated by James Earl Jones and Alfre Woodard; Sarajevo Ground Zero (1993); The Living Canvas (1992), narrated by Billy Dee Williams; Beyond JFK: The Question of Conspiracy (1992, co-directed by Barbara Kopple); Give Peace a Chance (1991); Mandela in America (1990) The Making of Sun City (1987); and Student Power (1968).

"Schechter is co-founder and executive producer of Globalvision, a New York-based television and film production company now in its 13th year, where he produced 156 editions of the award-winning series South Africa Now, co-produced Rights & Wrongs: Human Rights Television with Charlayne Hunter-Gault. His most recent human rights production, "Globalization and Human Rights was co-produced with Rory O'Connor and shown nationally on PBS.

"A Cornell University graduate, he received his Master's degree from the London School of Economics, and an honorary doctorate from Fitchburg College. He was a Nieman Fellow in Journalism at Harvard, where he also taught in 1969. After college, he was a full time civil rights worker and then communications director of the Northern Student Movement, worked as a community organizer in a Saul Alinsky-style War on Poverty program, and, moving from the streets to the suites, served as an assistant to the Mayor of Detroit in 1966 on a Ford Foundation grant...

"Schechter left Boston to join the staff at CNN as a producer based in Atlanta. He then moved to ABC as a producer for 20/20, where during his eight years he won two National News Emmys. Schechter has reported from 47 countries and lectured at many schools and universities. He was an adjunct rofessor at the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University. Schechter's writing has appeared in leading newspapers and magazines including the The Nation, Newsday, Boston Globe, Columbia Journalism Review, Media Studies Journal, Detroit Free Press, Village Voice, Tikkun, Z, and many others. He has a 25-year-old daughter, and lives in New York City in a large loft with an eight-thousand-album record collection, and an Apple computer that is nearly out of memory."

He hosts a radio show on Progressive Radio Network.

Affiliations

 * The Real News: International Founding Committee
 * Analyst, Media Accuracy on Latin America
 * Advisory Board, Kosmos Journal
 * Advisor, Global Vision Project