It is Wednesday, the morning after our season premiere. I just wanted to take a moment to thank so many of you for your kind notes over the last few weeks and especially thank you for your support of WIDE ANGLE. We have seven more programs to go this summer and one especially great challenge ahead.

I leave on July 4th for Jordan to report and shoot a piece on the tens of thousands of Iraqi refugees who now live there, as well as the million or so in Syria. Their plight is a huge and complicated humanitarian story, and as a reporter, I am eager to see it and report on it and bring it home to air in mid-August. But the trip is more than just a reporting journey. The American in me knows and understands that we have a special responsibility to know about and offer assistance to these people. Whatever you may think about the ongoing war next door in Iraq, these refugees are victims and deserve both compassion and help. So the citizen in me is eager to tell the story as well.

And then there is the father in me. I am taking my 19-year-old daughter Gabby along. She wants to be a reporter these days and the opportunity to show her what we do and how we do it is exciting. I am hopeful that she will tell you her story in this space by blogging about her experience on our website. Hey, a dad can hope.

Again, thanks so much for your notes and either I or the kid will keep you up-to-date on our journey to the Middle East.

Aaron Brown
New York
July 2, 2008

Before Aaron makes his WIDE ANGLE debut on Tuesday, July 1, he’s participating in PBS’s “Five Good Questions” feature, which allows you to interact with the people who appear on PBS. Aaron joins PBS as the host of WIDE ANGLE. He previously worked for CNN, where he reported on the horrors of 9/11, and ABC, where he served as the host of World News Now.

Got questions about Aaron’s career? Want to know what he’s been up to since leaving CNN? Itching to find out what brought him to PBS?

Click here to leave your questions. Please keep your questions on topic. We’ll choose five good ones and post Aaron’s responses within the next week or so.

We are a month away from launching our new season of programs and that seems like a good time to begin our conversation with you about what we are doing, why we are doing it and our own sense of what journalism in these times can be about.

With a month to go, the WIDE ANGLE staff is incredibly busy working with our filmmakers around the world to shape the pieces and get them ready for air. I am grateful for their experience and calm. As there is much work to do. It is not enough to simply present a program on Darfur or a program on the changing nature of the military in Japan or our own work on the sad and difficult Iraqi refugee problem in the Middle East. Our mission isn’t simply to make and support films on these issues.

What we must do and are doing is to make and shape films that look at these complicated issues in a compelling way. That requires not simply good journalism but good story telling – story telling with strong and compelling central characters that draw you into the journey we take each week. This is the essential difference between what I call “Eat Your Vegetables” journalism and work that you will not only watch but look forward to watching each week. In truth, the filmmakers and the WIDE ANGLE staff are far more experienced in the art of long form journalism than am I. So, I find myself helping some and learning a lot.

I come to this as a great believer in the mission and a great believer in you. This is a wonderful opportunity for me to engage in the kind of journalism that drew me to the craft a very long time ago. Modern media, with the pressures of minute-by-minute ratings, doesn’t always make that easy. A trip down Paris Hilton Lane is often easier and cheaper than a trip through the hospitals and culture of Mozambique. But you are a demanding bunch. You expect us to do work that is both important and compelling, and you should know how strongly all of us feel about delivering on that expectation. We are also sure you will tell us when we hit the mark and be just as vocal should we miss it.

That part of the season need not wait until we launch. We can begin now with a discussion of what you expect from us, from PBS and from the journalism you consume. I can’t promise we will answer each note we receive, but we will read them all and respond to as many as we can.

Finally, for some of you I am an old face in a new spot, for others I am just a refugee from cable news. To the first group, it will be so nice to work in front of you again. For that second group, I am eager to prove my chops. I trust you will not be bashful in your criticisms and – I hope – compliments.

Let the conversation begin!

Aaron Brown
New York
May 29, 2008

There are very few stories in our lifetime that Aaron Brown has not covered. Beginning with the Vietnam protests and Watergate in the 1970s to the beginning of the Iraq war he has, quite literally, been there. But it is likely that he is best remembered for one story – the attack of 9/11. On his first day of work at CNN, he was on the air a half-hour after the first attack, broadcasting from a rooftop in lower Manhattan. Brown’s coverage has been called courageous, calming and insightful.

Before he arrived at CNN, Brown was the anchor of ABC’s World News Tonight Saturday and reported for World News Tonight with Peter Jennings, Nightline and other ABC news broadcasts. He was the founding anchor of ABC’s World News Now. Brown played a lead role in covering many news stories, including the British return of Hong Kong to the Chinese government, the Columbine High School shootings, the trial of O.J. Simpson, and Nelson Mandela’s historic election as president of South Africa. He also reported on the restoration of Jean-Bertrand Aristide to the head of Haiti’s government, the death of Princess Diana, the trial of Susan Smith in Union, S.C., and the California earthquake in 1994. Additionally, Brown spent a year reporting and covering the tobacco industry. As an essayist for ABC News, Brown covered subjects ranging from the impeachment of President Bill Clinton to the life of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.

Brown has garnered numerous awards including three Emmy awards, a duPont-Columbia Award, a New York Film Festival World Medal, and an Edward R. Murrow Award for his coverage of 9/11.

Brown is the first Walter Cronkite Professor of Journalism at Arizona State University in Tempe.

WIDE ANGLE is anchored by former CNN and ABC journalist Aaron Brown. Brown introduces the featured documentary by putting it in the context of the news of the day and follows up with a hard-hitting one-on-one interview with a foreign policy expert, administration official, legislative leader, author or journalist who provides context and critical perspective on how global issues connect to American concerns and U.S. foreign policy.

WIDE ANGLE is a production of THIRTEEN and airs Wednesdays from July through September at 10 p.m. on most PBS stations nationwide. Check our TV Schedule to find out when WIDE ANGLE is broadcasting in your area.

Here’s what people are saying about WIDE ANGLE:

“WIDE ANGLE is just good television. The series tells stories, portrays people, and reveals places that are too often overlooked or neglected.” – Walter Cronkite

“In a television landscape where network news is dominated by tiny sound bites and cable shouting heads, WIDE ANGLE has a distinct and valuable place.” – The New York Times

“Unerringly first class… Three cheers, loud and clear, for WIDE ANGLE.” - Wall Street Journal

“Along with Frontline and a few other journalistic series, WIDE ANGLE justifies the funding of public TV.” – New York Newsday

“[WIDE ANGLE] takes the bold stance that information is critical… No other program is telling the stories it tells. Maybe that’s because some of the stories are unpopular, but that doesn’t make them any less essential to understanding the modern world.” – Chicago Daily Herald

“Serious subjects. Serious TV. That’s what viewers get with WIDE ANGLE, the award-winning cultural- and issue-oriented international documentary series…. In an age where grim, mind-numbing global events wash over us daily, WIDE ANGLE puts human faces to the stark headlines.” - Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (Little Rock)

“PBS WIDE ANGLE looks at stories and places too often overlooked or merely skimmed by most TV news organizations – a conscious attempt to broaden viewers’ focus in the post-Sept. 11 world.” – New York Times Syndicate

Other shows will explore such critical topics as the plight of Iraqi refugees in Syria and Jordan, the re-birth of Japan’s military, and a bold grassroots health initiative in Mozambique that has cut the maternal death rate in half. And, in China, we’ll embed with high school seniors prepping for an ultra-competitive week of finals. The demanding system that determines who will succeed and who will fail in tomorrow’s China makes America’s college entrance process look like child’s play.

Global issues. Human stories. Join us!

– Pamela Hogan, Executive Producer

Among the topics to be explored: the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Darfur; the young Chinese generation poised to take the reins of an emerging superpower; pioneering surgical midwives in Mozambique, the re-emergence of Japanese military; and, one of the most significant refugee crises in history, the displacement of more than two million Iraqi civilians.

“Aaron brings a quarter century of distinguished journalism experience to our viewers,” said Pamela Hogan, executive producer of WIDE ANGLE. “His incisive ability to interpret world affairs is a perfect complement to our mission to draw on front-page news and under-reported stories from around the world to help Americans better understand how these issues impact our lives.”