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

Madoff Affair, The

Martin Smith: Was this easy money?
Michael Bienes: Easy-peasy. Like a money machine. I always said I never lifted any heavy weights.

Excerpt from an interview with Michael Bienes, a longtime associate of Bernard L. Madoff, conducted in Fort Lauderdale, FL on Feb. 5, 2009.

War Briefing, The

FRONTLINE takes viewers to the deadliest front in Afghanistan and across the border to the insurgent safe havens deep inside Pakistan’s tribal areas. This is where the next battles will be fought – and may be lost.

“… Rigorously reported and somberly produced, “The War Briefing” is both a diagrammatic explanation of everything that has gone wrong [in Afghanistan] over the past few years and a grim visual tour of a landscape that nature itself seems to have made impervious to the ambitions of outside occupiers. Factually the film reprises recent news reports … but at the same time it palpably delivers a sense of our narrowing options…”
– Ginia Bellafante, The New York Times

“… Has anyone done better long-form TV journalism during this election cycle than PBS’ Frontline? … “The War Briefing” looks at the complicated and troubled military legacy left behind by Bush and Cheney that the new president will have to deal with as soon as he takes office …
– David Zurawik, The Baltimore Sun

“… “Briefing” brings together journalists, diplomats and others, along with film from a cameraman embedded with U.S. Army troops in the Korengal River Valley, a major Taliban smuggling route. The result is persuasive and scary.”
– Tony Perry, Los Angeles Times

“Frontline is consistently one of the most watchable and informative newsmagazines, thanks to its literal documentary style and its reluctance to stage phoney dramatized re-creations. … The result is a tough, hard-hitting, frequently compelling program that’s well worth an hour of your time.”
– Alex Strachan, Canwest News Service

“… a sobering look at the foreign policy challenges for the next president …”
– Kevin McDonough, United Features Syndicate

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Heat

FRONTLINE reports from inside America’s largest companies on how the risk of climate change legislation is rattling big business and on their struggle for survival.

“It’s too bad weasely answers can’t somehow be converted into clean energy, because Martin Smith, the “Frontline” producer and reporter, elicits a lot of them in “Heat,” his savvy investigation of global warming and our chances of stopping it…”
– Neil Genzlinger, The New York Times

“… Thorough and wide-ranging, “Heat” takes us from India’s cement factories … and the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Bali to the international empire that is Exxon and the chambers of the Congress. …

“It’s enough to make a person turn off all the lights, pull the covers over her head and weep. But that, of course, is the problem. This is exactly what Americans have done for far too long. Or at least this is what “Heat” argues, and it does so quite persuasively…”
– Mary McNamara, Los Angeles Times

“Nobody watches “Frontline” for the comedy, but I found it amusing to see publicists squirm under vigilant grilling. … Students of evasion, double talk and nondenial denials should not miss this.”
– Kevin McDonough, United Features Syndicate

… [P]eerless Martin Smith looks into the main issues of global pollution, the ambivalent role of the U.S. industry and the prospects of environmental change given a new administration. Its typically clear delineations of the issues, it turns out, makes it a perfect choice for pre-election consideration.
– Roger Catlin, Hartford Courant

“”Heat” won’t stop money from talking. Chances are, nothing will. But understanding the complex issues behind all those talking points might at least move more of us to demand a say in the future that seems to be coming, whether we’re ready or not.”
– Ellen Gray, Philadelphia Daily News

“When it comes to climate change, the official word on the campaign trail is optimism. … “Heat,” the “Frontline” documentary that premieres tonight, … functions as a big wet blanket, a sad reminder that, in this country and many others, the sort of change the planet needs has never come easily. This is an in-depth look at the impediments to climate change solutions, with a focus on the political system that has, so far, resisted anything more than tiny, piecemeal efforts…”
– Joanna Weiss, The Boston Globe

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Living on the Edge

Reporter Martin Smith shares some devastating field notes from the melting Himalayas, drought-stricken Africa and the warming waters of the South East Atlantic. Smith came across these stories while working on Heat, a two-hour FRONTLINE documentary on climate change that aired on PBS in October 2008.

Telling the Truth (2008)

Telling the Truth: The Best in Broadcast Journalism, a one-hour documentary hosted by CNN’s chief international correspondent, Christiane Amanpour, will feature this year’s 13 duPont-Columbia baton winners.

Medicated Child, The

Over the last fifteen years, there’s been a 4000% increase in the number of kids diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Four-year-old DJ was diagnosed six months ago and is now on four psychiatric medications. But the drugs he takes are largely untested in children and can cause serious side effects. Is this good medicine? Or is it an uncontrolled experiment? FRONTLINE investigates.

“FRONTLINE’s ‘The Medicated Child’ … is about as harrowing a look at the burgeoning use of drugs to treat psychological conditions in children as you can imagine…”
– Heather Havrilesky, Salon.com

“… ‘The Medicated Child’ revisits territory FRONTLINE first examined in 2001, raising some familiar warning flags and some new ones. But it’s not a knee-jerk treatment. As the program points out, there are pros as well as cons to the increased use of prescription drugs on children.”
– Neil Genzlinger, The New York Times

“… Writer/producer Marcela Gaviria and co-producer Will Cohen portray a growing medical establishment that is grappling with crises in the lives of children while establishing its own boundaries, protocols and body of certain knowledge. …

“‘Child’ reveals a world of paradox, contradiction and anecdotes that could bolster almost any viewpoint. …

“‘Child’ is far from an anti-drug diatribe. … What Gaviria and Cohen stress is that suddenly (in terms of establishing protocols) drugs are becoming integral to the lives of grade-schoolers and preschoolers — in numbers growing exponentially. How will this affect their later life — their teens, their early working years and so on? … ”
– Ted Mahar, The Oregonian

Indonesia: After the Wave

On December 26, 2004, the Indonesian province of Aceh was hit by the massive Indian Ocean tsunami that killed 170,000 people and devastated villages and towns. In the wake of the catastrophe, the Indonesian army and local separatist rebels, the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) ended their decades-long war, which took 15,000 lives. In After the Wave, FRONTLINE/World correspondent Orlando de Guzman returns to Aceh, where he had first covered the war, to explore the prospects for continued peace.