Former
60 Minutes (1993) producer whose role in one of the biggest corporate
scandals in American history was dramatized by actor
Al Pacino in the
film
L'initié (1999). Bergman had contacted Jeffrey Wigand (who had served as
vice president for research and development at the Brown & Williamson
tobacco company until he was fired in 1993) for an interview when
Bergman was preparing a story about cigarettes. Bergman got his
interview, but CBS executives decided not to run the story for fear of
financial repercussions. The story was exposed by the New York Times in
1995. Berman left "60 Minutes" to teach at the University of California
at Berkeley and to work on freelance investigative projects for
television. In 1977 he co-founded the Center for Investigative
Journalism in San Francisco.
