Daniel Isaac Schechter (June 27, 1942 – March 19, 2015) was an American television producer, independent filmmaker, blogger, and media critic. He wrote and spoke about many issues including apartheid, civil rights, economics, foreign policy, journalistic control and ethics, and medicine. While attending the London School of Economics in the 1960s, Schechter became an anti-apartheid activist and made trips to South Africa on behalf of the African National Congress (ANC). Later he would help musician Steven Van Zandt assemble other performers to form Artists United Against Apartheid, who released the album Sun City in 1985. Schechter produced and directed six nonfiction films about Nelson Mandela from the time Mandela was a political prisoner to his election and service as President of South Africa.
Schechter's first job in media was with WBCN in Boston, during the 1970s where he became known as "Danny Schechter, the news dissector", a nickname that stuck throughout his life. He continued to work in media with ABC and the start-up cable television news station CNN until he abandoned corporate media and founded TV and film production company Globalvision with his friend and longtime associate Rory O'Connor. Globalvision produced South Africa Now which was a television show that focused on the anti-apartheid struggle and news and culture from South Africa. He authored over 14 books.
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Early life and education
Schechter was born in New York City, on June 27, 1942. His mother, Ruth Lisa Schechter (née Lubin), was a secretary and a published poet; his father, Jerry Schechter, was a garment center pattern maker and a sculptor. Grandson of Russian-Jewish immigrant socialists, Schechter grew up in the Bronx, in the garment union-sponsored Amalgamated housing cooperative development.
He attended DeWitt Clinton High School, and graduated in 1964 from Cornell University, where he wrote for The Cornell Daily Sun and was a member of the Quill and Dagger society. He later received a master's degree from the London School of Economics and an honorary doctorate from Fitchburg State University.
Career
During his time in London, Schechter was a Steering Committee member of the American anti-Vietnam war group The Stop-it Committee. He met Ruth First and other anti-apartheid activists. He joined the African National Congress (ANC) as a part of the organization's "London Recruits", who were tasked with entering South Africa undetected by authorities and conveying communication between exiled members of the ANC and members still in South Africa. While in South Africa Schechter attended the funeral of Albert Lutuli who was the President of the African National Congress from 1952 to 1967.
Schechter was a civil rights worker and the communications director of the Northern Student Movement, and served as a community organizer in a War on Poverty program. He also worked as an assistant to the Mayor of Detroit in 1966.
He was a Nieman Fellow in Journalism at Harvard University, where he taught in 1969, and an adjunct professor at the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University.
His media career began at Boston radio station WBCN-FM where he would start his show with the line, "This is Danny Schechter, your news dissector." The nickname was given to him by accident as he was introduced on-air by a colleague as "the news inspector, the news digester, the news dissector." Schechter recalled, 'News dissector' sounded pretty unique and good, so I basically latched onto it." He would eventually rise to the position of news director for WBCN-FM. To Schechter, "dissecting" the news meant he reported the facts of a story, laid the background for the issue, then asserted why media outlets failed to accurately report on the story. Schechter described himself as "a participatory journalist, a down-with-the-movement reporter, a manic media maven." Among his many interviews was one with John Lennon and Yoko Ono in June 1973.
Schechter joined the start-up staff at CNN as a producer and later was a producer for the ABC newsmagazine 20/20, responsible for 50 segments of the program; he won two Emmy Awards and was nominated for two others including for a 1983 investigation of President Reagan's plans to fight and recover from all-out nuclear war co-produced with Bill Lichtenstein.
Schechter assisted musician Steven Van Zandt and record producer Arthur Baker in creating Artists United Against Apartheid, which was a group of musicians who released a protest album in 1985 entitled Sun City.
Death
Schechter died of pancreatic cancer on March 19, 2015, in New York City.
Awards and honors
2001 Award for Excellence in Documentary Journalism from the Society of Professional Journalists (for Falun Gong's Challenge to China)
2004 Austin Film Festival Documentary Film Award (for WMD: Weapons of Mass Deception)
2008 James Aronson Award for Blogging
Honorary doctorate from Fitchburg State University
Nieman Fellowship in Journalism at Harvard University
Two Emmy Awards, four nominations
Productions
Film and television
Schechter produced and directed many television specials and documentary films, including:
Books
Schechter's books include: