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March 20, 2015

Author, Filmmaker Danny Schechter, "The News Dissector," Dies at 72 
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The author, filmmaker and media reform activist Danny Schechter has died
at the age of 72. Schechter rose to prominence as "The News Dissector"
on Boston's WBCN radio in the 1970s. He went on to work as a television
producer at ABC's 20/20, where he won two Emmy Awards, and at the newly
launched CNN. But he left corporate media to become executive director
of Media Channel.org and co-founder and executive director of Global
Vision. He authored 12 books, including "The More You Watch, the Less
You Know." He was also a leading activist against apartheid in South
Africa and made six nonfiction films about Nelson Mandela. Schechter
appeared on Democracy Now! multiple times. In this 2013 interview, after
Mandela's death, he reflected on his own activism as part of a project
called "Sun City: Artists Against Apartheid."

Danny Schechter: "This was not all about lobbying Congress. This was
about informing America about what was happening. And in some cases, it
was cultural figures, 58 of the world's top artists who indicted the
system of forced relocation in South Africa. That's what Sun City was
all about. It was a part of an effort to promote a cultural boycott
alongside an economic boycott. And it was very successful and worldwide
in its impact. And I think that was important. And then, you know, I
helped start the TV series, South Africa Now, that ran for 156 weeks,
every week, in the United States, reporting on South Africa through the
eyes of South Africans. It was their story."

Schechter died in New York City after a battle with pancreatic cancer.
He was 72.

 

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