The Fred Friendly Seminars

Columbia University
Graduate School of Journalism
Fred Friendly Seminars, Inc.
2950 Broadway
New York, NY 10027
212.854.8995/Tel
212.854.8868/Fax
www.fredfriendly.org
Board of Directors
Tom Conway
Chief Financial Officer
Educational Broadcasting Corp
Beth Courtney
President
Louisiana Public Broadcasting
Ruth Friendly
Executive Editor
Fred Friendly Seminars
Richard Kilberg
President
Fred Friendly Seminars
Lee Levine
Partner
Levine, Sullivan, Koch & Schultz
Arthur R. Miller
University Professor
NYU Law School
Charles J. Ogletree
Jesse Climenko Professor
Harvard Law School
Jane L. Polin
Philanthropic Advisor
Daniel R. Stern
Consultant
Stern + Associates
Robert A. Wilson
President
Wilson Communications
Advisory Board
Floyd Abrams
Marcia Angell, M.D.
Carolyn Asbury
Robert L. Bernstein
Tom Bettag
Joseph A. Califano, Jr.
Arthur Caplan
Frank H. Cruz
Ellen V. Futter
Margaret Hamburg, M.D.
Matt James
Michael R. Klein
Nicholas Lemann
Richard C. Leone
E. Leo Milonas
Benno Schmidt
Nadine Strossen
Fareed Zakaria
THE FRED FRIENDLY SEMINARS
ON PUBLIC TELEVISION
“Our job is to make the agony of decision-making
so intense that you can escape only by thinking.”
Fred W. Friendly
The Fred Friendly Seminars continues a twenty-year legacy of
seminars and public television programs exploring complex, vital issues using
the Socratic Dialogue format. The Socratic Dialogue format was first
developed by Fred Friendly in an attempt to establish constructive dialogue
between the news media and the judiciary in the aftermath of Watergate.
Subsequently, it was refined under the auspices of the Ford Foundation, and
continued as the Columbia Media and Society Seminars at Columbia
University’s Graduate School of Journalism.
In countless seminars and more than one hundred television
programs, the Socratic Dialogue format has been used to consider such
subjects as First Amendment issues, the judiciary and public policy, ethics
in America, medicine and health care, privacy, libel, the Bill of Rights and
popular culture.
The Socratic Dialogue format uses role-playing, hypothetical situations and a
roving moderator who pushes panelists to confront what they would do in
complicated situations where the “right” choice is not clear. The exercise is
designed to identify the perceptions and decision-making process of all sides
to enable participants both to better understand their own positions and to put
themselves in the others’ shoes. The question “what would you do” is
different from “what do you think about such-and-such” in that it drives a
participant to plot a course of action that reveals what he or she truly believes
about a subject. As panelists wrestle with the hypothetical, the drama created
helps examine complex issues in a compelling, entertaining and stimulating
way.

AMONG THE PROGRAMS
Minds on the Edge – Rights and responsibilities in relation to people with severe mental illness
Ethics in America II - Ethical decision-making in medicine, journalism, business, the judiciary,
human enhancement and personal life. A 21 st C. update of the classic Fred Friendly series.
In The Balance: Terrorism – Two programs on terrorism in the US – one focuses on a bio-attack
to a major US city; one looks at the consequences of an imminent dirty-bomb attack.
Our Genes/Our Choices - A three-part series on the impact of genetics on our health, our
families, our work and our laws.
DISCONNECTED: Politics, the Press and the Public - The impact of the news media on the
voters and the election process.
Epidemic! A Fred Friendly Seminar - Dilemmas faced by the medical profession, law
enforcement, the government and the press in dealing with an epidemic.
Beyond Black and White: Affirmative Action in America - A highly diverse panel search for
both answers and commonality within this deeply complex, controversial and emotional topic.
Before I Die: Medical Care and Personal Choices - A moving exploration of the medical, legal
and financial issues facing patients and families as they grapple with “end-of-life” decisions.
Liberty & Limits: The Federalist Idea 200 Years Later - Does America’s current political
system still match the vision of its founders? A four part series examining campaign finance reform,
privacy and security, and the power struggle between the President and Congress.
That Delicate Balance II: Our Bill of Rights - Against a backdrop of the Bill of Rights, a five
part series exploring criminal justice, hate speech, right to life/right to choice and other complex,
timely issues.
The Military and the News Media - The press’s role in reporting on military operations,
intelligence and war.
Hard Drugs, Hard Choices - The tough legal and social issues confronting an America inundated
with drugs.
Ethics in America - The moral issues that arise in personal life and in journalism, business,
government, medicine, scientific research, the military and the law.
The Presidency and the Constitution - A glimpse of behind-the-scenes dilemmas and decisionmaking
in the White House, the State Department, the Congress, the courtroom and newsroom.
In the Face of Terrorism - The excruciating choices that terrorists pose to government and the
news media.
The Constitution: That Delicate Balance - A 13-part series explores the Constitution in relation
to school prayer, criminal justice, and affirmative action, war powers, federalism and more.

AMONG THE PARTICIPANTS
U.S. Presidents. Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford
U.S. Supreme Court Justices. Harry Blackmun, Stephen Breyer, Sandra Day O’Connor, Antonin
Scalia, David Souter, Potter Stewart
Members of Congress. Barbara Boxer, Max Cleland, Christopher Dodd, Barney Frank, Newt
Gingrich, Orrin Hatch, Henry Hyde, Nancy Kassebaum, John Kerry, Rick Lazio, Patrick Leahy,
Barbara Mikulski, Eleanor Holmes Norton, Charles Rangel, Frank Riggs, Warren Rudman, Mark
Sanford, Paul Sarbanes, Patricia Schroeder, Charles Schumer, Paul Simon, Alan Simpson, Louise
McIntosh Slaughter, Fred Thompson
Cabinet Members and Government Officials. Griffin Bell, Joseph Califano, William Casey,
Richard C. Clark, Richard A. Clarke, Archibald Cox, Jeffrey Garten, James Gilmore, Jamie
Gorelick, Alan Greenspan, Jeanne Kirkpatrick, Robert McNamara, Edwin Meese, Paul Steven
Miller, Paul Nitze, Robert Reich, Dean Rusk, James Schlesinger, Cyrus Vance, William Webster
Business Leaders. John Abele, William Agee, Edward Brennan, Warren Buffett, James Burke,
Robert L. Crandall, William Donaldson, Stanley C. Gault, John Gutfreund, Ben W. Heineman, Jr.,
Lewis Kaden, David T. Kearns, Heidi Kunz, George Keller, William McDonough, Nell Minow,
John Neff, Pete Peterson, T. Boone Pickens, Jay A. Pritzer, Henry Schacht, John G. Smale, Fred
Smith, Jr.
Journalists. Ben Bradlee, William F. Buckley, Jr., Randy Cohen, Stanley Crouch, Karen DeYoung,
John Donvan, Linda Ellerbee, Laurie Garrett, Ellen Goodman, Jeff Greenfield, Meg Greenfield,
Stephen Hayes, Nat Hentoff, James Hoge, Peter Jennings, Ted Koppel, Paul Krugman, Anthony
Lewis, Cynthia McFadden, Bill Moyers, Dana Priest, Anna Quindlen, William Raspberry, Dan
Rather, Morley Safer, William Safire, Frank Sesno, Lesley Stahl, Nina Totenberg, Mike Wallace,
Meredith Vieira, Fareed Zakaria
Medicine and the Law. Floyd Abrams, Marcia Angell, Johnnie L. Cochran, Jr., Francis S. Collins,
Michael DeBakey, Vincent DeVita, William DeVries, Willard Gaylin, Kamala Harris, Robert
Jarvik, Eric Kandel, David Kessler, C. Everett Koop, Mark Lanier, Joshua Lederberg, Sherwin
Nuland, Jeanine Pirro, David Satcher, Nadine Strossen, Victoria Toensing, Mary Jo White
Military Leaders. Gen. Peter Dawkins, Gen. Alexander Haig, Admiral Bobby Inman, Maj. Gen.
Bruce Lawlor, Gen. Edward Meyer, Lt. Gen. Brent Scowcroft, Admiral Stansfield Turner, Gen.
William Westmoreland
Ethicists, Educators & Others. John Brademas, Arthur Caplan, Jill Ker Conway, Christopher
Edley, Michael Gazzaniga, Alexander Heard, Rev. Theodore Hesburgh, Deborah Meier, Elder
Dallin H. Oaks, John J. Paris, S.J., Alvin Poussaint, Diane Ravitch, Michael Sandel, Albert Shanker,
Tom Sobbel

PRAISE FOR PAST SEMINARS
The program was pretty scary…like a season of ‘24’…exchanges gave a glimpse of
the instincts, challenges and concerns of the players who decide how America
responds to crisis. (We) tip our hat to PBS for doing it right.
-- CBSNews.com
The sort of enterprise that justifies the existence of Public Broadcasting.
-- New York Times
A more nuanced look at the issue than you are likely to see in a month of Sunday
morning soundbites.
-- The Wall Street Journal
Fred Friendly Seminars . . . are unmatched in their ability to combine passion with
civility, intellectual muscle with first-class conversation.
-- Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Whether the person on the spot is a journalist, member of Congress, or
administration official, the game’s fascination is in seeing the people who actually
make such decisions, or who once did, playing out their roles for all to see. This is,
for better or worse, the way life-and-death choices get made.
-- Newsday
One part panel discussion to four parts drama, this program is appealing for two
reasons. First, it clarifies issues in a case of this kind...But second, the program is
appealing because it’s fun.
-- Wall Street Journal
An incredibly candid hour of high drama...An explosive, entertaining swapshop of
ideas.
-- Chicago Tribune
What an incredible format for delivering information about people and issues
simultaneously...The scenarios spun by the moderator are diabolical…Rhetorical
answers don’t work...The participants cannot hide.
-- Washington Journalism Review
Although many points are well-taken, the crisp beauty of such a presentation is that
no side wins clearly.
-- USA Today
…If [the program] wants to make us think, it is being hugely successful.
-- New York Times