After PBS FRONTLINE’s May 3 airing of Fighting For Bin Laden, Correspondent Martin Smith talks about the future of Al Qaeda with terror expert Peter Bergen, the best-selling author of three books on Osama bin Laden and the “war on terror.”
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Broadcast Tues, March 29, 2011 on PBS FRONTLINE: “The Private Life of Bradley Manning”
A profile of the early years of the young soldier now accused of leaking more than half a million classified U.S. government documents.
Watch the full episode. See more FRONTLINE.
Exclusive: PFC Manning’s father speaks out
FRONTLINE has obtained an exclusive interview with the father of PFC Bradley Manning, who has been accused of leaking more than half a million secret documents to WikiLeaks.
You can see a preview below. See the extended clips, here.
Watch the full episode. See more FRONTLINE.
Broadcast Tuesday, Feb. 22, 2011 on PBS FRONTLINE “Revolution in Cairo”
FRONTLINE dispatches teams to Cairo, going inside the youth movement that helped light the fire on the streets. We follow the “April 6” group, which two years ago began making a bold use of the Internet for their underground resistance — tactics that led to jail and torture for many of their leaders. Now, starting with the “Day of Rage,” we witness those same leaders plot strategy and head into “Liberation Square” to try to bring down President Mubarak. Also in this hour, veteran Middle East correspondent Charles Sennott of GlobalPost lands in Cairo for FRONTLINE to take a hard look at Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood — the most well-organized and powerful of the country’s opposition groups — as a new fight for power in Egypt begins to takes shape.
Spy Who Quit, The
There are a lot of closely guarded secrets in Afghanistan. Amrullah Saleh knows most of them. Until six months ago he was Afghanistan’s chief of intelligence. Then suddenly he was out. In the debut of FRONTLINE’s new magazine series, Martin Smith travels to Afghanistan to talk with Saleh about his defection.
Broadcast Tuesday, January 18th, 2011 on PBS FRONTLINE: “The Spy Who Quit.”
This is Rain Media’s latest — a ten minute piece appearing at the back end of FRONTLINE’s new magazine program. If you miss it on-air, make sure to catch it online at www.frontline.org.
Martin Smith, who traveled to Afghanistan in late November to interview Amrullah Saleh, Afghanistan’s top spymaster, had this to say:
“I first met Amrullah Saleh four years ago when I was filming “Return of the Taliban” for FRONTLINE. We’ve kept in touch since. After news came that he had been forced to resign, I invited myself to his home in the Panjshir valley north of Kabul. It sits in an old village above a clear, rushing river, surrounded by mulberry groves. Amrullah was a gracious host, a terrific raconteur, and a man who likes to climb mountains before breakfast “to make his eggs and nan taste good.”
During our three day visit I asked Amrullah to explain his break with President Karzai, his views of the American military and of Pakistan As always I found him to be candid and direct. He is an unapologetic hawk who wants NATO and Afghan forces to escalate the war – more night raids, more targeting killings, more drones inside Pakistan. Many including President Karzai believe he is misguided and reckless but Amrullah insists that a greater civil war is inevitable unless the Taliban, their sponsors in Pakistan and al Qaeda are forever defeated.”
Spill, The
In the wake of the Deepwater Horizon accident in the Gulf, FRONTLINE correspondent Martin Smith joins with the investigative non-profit ProPublica to examine BP’s track record over the past twenty years.
The Spill (working title) takes viewers from BP’s vast oil fields in Alaska to its refineries in Texas and to BP’s trading rooms in New York and London, to investigate what’s wrong with the troubled oil giant.
College Inc.
FRONTLINE follows the money to uncover how Wall Street and a new breed of for-profit universities are transforming the way we think about college in America.
” Aside from the prominence it gives the flamboyant Mr. [Michael] Clifford, the 52-minute Frontline report, ‘College Inc.,’ largely eschews sensationalism and rightly focuses on the costs of attending those colleges, compared with public alternatives, the disproportionately heavy debt load many of their students end up with, and the aggressive recruiting tactics some of the companies employ…”
– Goldie Blumenstyk, The Chronicle of Higher Education
“Let’s hear it for ‘Frontline,’ which continues to take on topics for no earthly reason save they’re important. … [Martin] Smith faces down an unwieldy topic and creates a vivid portrait of a startling new kind of American education. One that has grown up along our highways, in our urban centers and on the Internet with weed-like speed and tenacity, and seemingly while no one was looking.”
– Mary McNamara, Los Angeles Times
“For close readers of Inside Higher Ed, the documentary won’t bring much new to the table. … The storyline is more balanced than many major-media examinations of for-profit colleges, but it’s still a less-than-favorable depiction of the sector.”
– “Quick Takes,” Inside Higher Ed
“Correspondent Martin Smith adeptly probes the booming for-profit higher-education industry. … [He] covers many angles in this provocative and fascinating Frontline, interviewing school executives, who say they are providing a convenient degree path for non-traditional students, and industry watchdogs, who wonder if the schools are churning out debt-saddled, unqualified graduates who are unable to land jobs.”
– Michele Archer, USA Today
Quake, The
A powerful report on Haiti’s tragedy. What can be done now, and who will do it?
“… an intelligent, conscientious, elegantly produced throwing up of the hands. That isn’t meant as a criticism. Where an American commercial broadcaster’s report on the quake and its aftermath–if there were such a thing at this point–would seek out the heroic story and the silver lining, The Quake presents despair and intractable problems while doing its part to keep the news alive. …”
– Mike Hale, The New York Times
“… while ‘Frontline’s’ ‘The Quake’ doesn’t have all the answers, it at least manages to explain the questions.”
– Ellen Gray, Philadelphia Inquirer
“… a searing, perplexing look at Haiti. … this is an instance of a TV report bearing witness, requiring us to look at death and horror. And it doesns’t flinch, as most TV reporting from Haiti obviously did.”
– John Doyle, The Globe and Mail (Canada)
“There’s no program quite like ‘Frontline’ to put a complex issue in the news into a succinct and often devastating package …”
– Roger Catlin, Hartford Courant
Obama’s War
Correspondent Martin Smith travels across Afghanistan and Pakistan to see first-hand how the president’s new strategy is taking shape.
“… Obama’s War gives viewers a glimpse of what trying to defeat the Taliban — again — really entails. … A focused look at a dismally complex and intractable conflict. …”
– Alessandra Stanley, The New York Times
“… It is a frank and even fatalistic primer. … You’ll be exactly up to speed on the issues when Obama’s War is over, and thoroughly filled with dread about what happens now …
– Hank Stuever , The Washington Post
“… With this clear-eyed and unsentimental view, Frontline invites respect for the risks and demands of foreign reporting. … More importantly, it gives us admiration — and a great degree of sympathy — for the Marines under fire.”
– Joanna Weiss, The Boston Globe
“Obama’s War, a top-notch report with ace correspondent Martin Smith, tries to give both sides in the debate a fair shake.”
– Tony Perry, Los Angeles Times
“A strong season premiere places the viewer in the midst of the seemingly impossible task of counterinsurgency. … Some of the most jaw-dropping war footage on record.”
– Joanne Ostrow, The Denver Post
“This is a sprawling documentary that explores many issues. … [A] spectacular piece of explanatory reporting.”
– Verne Gay, Newsday
