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James L. Loper Lecture in Public Service Broadcasting Delivered by David Fanning November 19, 2009 Thank you Geoff Cowan, and Dean Wilson, from its earliest years. Marty made his first for your kind words, and especially for your film for me in 1986. It was called “Who’s invitation to come here to the Annenberg Running this War?” and it was about the School to give the annual Loper Lecture. Contra War against Nicaragua. It was also, I believe, the first time that anyone had This also gives me a chance publicly to drawn attention to a mysterious “Colonel thank Jim Loper, for the years of work he North” who was operating out of the gave not just to KCET but as a leader in basement of the Reagan White House… public broadcasting. It’s an honor to be invited in his name. What impressed me so much about working on that first film with Marty Smith was not I would also like to thank Mr Russell Smith just his skill as a filmmaker, a director who for his sponsorship of this lecture. I have a could craft scenes and tell a good story, but special reason for doing so, beyond the his tough-minded reporting. He dug up that obvious. I am honored to meet him here story about Oliver North and named today -- I know how long Mr Smith, and his names… late brother, Elden Smith, have been supporters of public broadcasting and its It would take too long to go over all the mission, back to the creation and building films Marty has made for FRONTLINE of KCET in the 1960s… since – I asked him to count, and we came up with well over 30…. It was only recently How do I know all this? Well, as they say in that I pushed him into turning the camera on my business, I have my sources… himself and his questions – until then, he had like most documentarians, stayed behind But let me just this once reveal them… I the camera… want to show you another short video, of someone very important in my life and work But all along his natural ability to ask hard, – Mr Smith’s nephew, Elden Smith’s son, probing questions, his indefatigable Martin Smith… curiosity, and genuine courage, has led to some of the most important works we have (video: Obama’s War”) done at FRONTLINE… “Hunting Bin Laden” was made two and a half years That was a couple of clips from “Obama’s before 9/11. It was the film we rebroadcast War”, FRONTLINE’s powerful film about two days after that tragic event, to Afghanistan and Pakistan which opened this extraordinary public response… In fact, the fall season of the series… morning after, PBS got a call from the White House, saying Vice President Cheney The correspondent you saw was Martin wanted a copy. “We’ll send it right over,” Smith, who has been with FRONTLINE USC Annenberg Center on Communication Leadership and Policy 2009 James L. Loper Lecture in Public Service Broadcasting Delivered by David Fanning they said. “There’s a car downstairs film that “changed US policy in already,” was the reply… Afghanistan…” Those next days, in packed screenings on Capitol Hill, we were literally briefing the Now, I’ve devoted so much of this time to Congress and the US government on who Marty Smith, I know he would be was Osama Bin Laden and what was Al embarrassed. But I’m doing this, not Qaeda… What an awesome responsibility because of his family who are here – but for journalists. because it illustrates how important this work is. I tell that story not so much about Marty Smith, or Lowell Bergman, with whom he And it tells us something much more worked on that film, as I do about the profound, about what it takes to make good importance of public broadcasting. And the journalism. It takes talent and intelligence, potential impact and influence of our it takes a lot of guts and the courage to go journalism. places, and it takes time… Over the years FRONTLINE has been able Time. It is the most precious commodity we to bring a focus to the serious issues, in film have been given at FRONTLINE. And after film, and occasionally to do what we Marty and all the other FRONTLINE always say we want to do – “make the beast producers who have done this work all these blink” -- get the attention of the powerful. years know more than anyone how valuable that is. What a privilege. It is the That was illustrated most vividly, again with investment of time, not just to research, but Marty Smith, who just this summer, while the time to collect, to parse out the meanings making “Obama’s War”, was interviewing of the interviews, the scenes, the fragments General Eikenberry, now the US of stock footage… and the time to think – ambassador to Afghanistan… Afterwards, and rethink – the ideas and their progress Eikenberry told him a story – that he’d had through the narrative. And then to re-edit, such difficulty getting Bush and Cheney to and get it right. pay attention to the problems in Afghanistan, that he’d got them to screen This is the most difficult of journalistic “Return of the Taliban”, Marty Smith’s crafts, I believe. That’s the reason so few 2006 film on the resurgent Taliban. He said places, like the networks, do this any more. it got their attention in a way that all his Making a major narrative documentary is an power point presentations couldn’t… expensive and time-consuming task. It doesn’t make economic sense. It only That evening, after the interview, Marty was makes journalistic sense. And that’s if you invited to dinner with a visiting believe that in an increasingly complex congressional delegation. Sitting on the roof world, someone needs to pick through the of the Embassy, with the lights of Kabul mass of information that comes flooding at around them, Eikenberry introduced Marty us day and night, and choose a path through to the visitors, as the man responsible for the it. A great narrative documentary is a bright line, an intellectual journey that helps us 2 USC Annenberg Center on Communication Leadership and Policy 2009 James L. Loper Lecture in Public Service Broadcasting Delivered by David Fanning make sense of the world around us, and that choose the easy way. Take the safe challenges our intellects. programming, the anodyne, the familiar. It’s educational isn’t it? That’s it: intelligence. It is, and has to be, our watchword. If we can’t say that the Sometimes the problem lies simply in the idea, the story, the film, we’re working on is way in which they see their jobs. Is it to intelligent, then we shouldn’t be doing it. In bring the best and smartest and most fact, we shouldn’t be given the means to do provocative programming we can find -- or it. Someone should take away the money afford – or is that just too subjective and they give us to produce these films. complicated a quest? Or maybe, it’s just easier to try to get an audience at any price. There is only one way to justify the public money that comes to FRONTLINE – and it Not long ago I visited a station, as a favor to has been considerable over the years, an speak to their major donors. I was picked up extraordinary commitment by public at the airport by the program director, a nice broadcasting to this series and this idea – and enthusiastic lady who had worked at the and that is if we keep making something that station for 25 years. She was a big supporter is both smart and excellent. of FRONTLINE, she said, and programmed it right next to Nova at 9pm… That’s the test we should be applying to everything we do in public broadcasting. But, she said, she doesn’t program those Excellence. Sadly, we often fail at that. other documentary programs after There is really too much second-rate work FRONTLINE – POV, Independent Lens – that gets by. If it finds funding, it often gets because, well, they sometimes have odd broadcast. lengths, and that disturbs the scheduling of the “Britcoms” she has on afterwards… And That’s the most profound challenge to public besides, they generally cause a lot of phone broadcasting, I believe: that while we argue calls from unhappy viewers who don’t like for increased funding, for more accessibility, the politics. for new programs and innovative applications in the multi-platform world, we So out they go -- off to the alternative have to consider the decision makers, the channel where, “anyone who wants them programmers and the gatekeepers -- the can find them”. Oh, and Charlie Rose – he’s leadership of this enterprise. on at 6 in the morning… The station does no local news. It does produce pledge They have to demand excellence. Frankly, programming. they don’t deserve more money, until they do. Of course, there are some smart and This was perhaps not as disturbing as the dedicated people who want excellence, but station I spoke at last year for their annual it’s often risky stuff -- and many more are in fundraising dinner in their studio. I stood at positions where they have learned to protect a lectern against a backdrop covered in their flanks, and to look over their shoulders logos for Nova, and Masterpiece Theater, at boards, and university presidents, to noisy and Nature and FRONTLINE… I told them station members (or member stations) and why this endeavor is important, how 3 USC Annenberg Center on Communication Leadership and Policy 2009 James L.

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