J-School Mourns Death of Ben Bagdikian

Personal note from Dean Edward Wasserman:

Ben Bagdikian was already a journalist of wide accomplishment and bold enterprise when he joined Berkeley in the late 1970s. He then became part of that first wave of pioneering professionals who established the School as one of the premier journalism educators in the world. That should’ve been enough, but almost as a sidelight, in the meantime he also used his exceptional reporting skills to compile a riveting expose, The Media Monopoly, in 1983. That book, and its subsequent editions, re-energized a whole tradition of critical coverage of the media business. It inspired a generation of journalists and progressive scholars to look with fresh interest at the chilling consequences of concentrated corporate control of news and entertainment. Ben was a major figure in 20th century U.S. journalism and journalism education, and we’re all his beneficiaries.

Personal note from Professor Lowell Bergman:

Ben was sweet, smart and an incredibly solid reporter, editor and leader, who was a creator of modern investigative reporting. Most of all when you were confronted by a publisher who was scared, or had turned hostile, or a powerful institution that wanted to squash you, Ben would volunteer without hesitation to stand shoulder to shoulder with you. His example lives on.

March 21, 2016 update:

A memorial service for the late Ben Bagdikian, former J-School dean and professor emeritus, will take place on Saturday, July 2, at 2 p.m., at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, 1 Lawson Road, Kensington, CA 94707, his family has announced.

Those wishing to make a donation to the School in Ben’s memory may do so here. They should then click on the button, “I am giving in memory of someone.”

Click here to read his obituary in the New York Times.