Michael Kirk and Mike Wiser, the writing team behind FRONTLINE’s 2022 documentary Lies, Politics and Democracy, won the Writers Guild Award in the Documentary Scripts — Current Events category on March 5, 2023.

Lies, Politics and Democracy investigates American political leaders and the choices they’ve made that have undermined and threatened democracy in the U.S. The two-hour documentary special, which premiered on FRONTLINE in the weeks leading up to the 2022 midterm elections, examines how officials fed the public lies about the 2020 presidential election and embraced rhetoric that led to political violence.

“Lies, Politics and Democracy was written to communicate one big idea — politically-charged lies have posed a very real threat to American democracy. Our goal was to call out those lies as directly as possible, and we’re honored that the Writers Guild has recognized our investigation with this award,” says Kirk. “We share this award with Raney Aronson-Rath, Andrew Metz and the entire Kirk Documentary Group and FRONTLINE teams.”

Kirk — director, writer and producer of Lies, Politics and Democracy — and Wiser, who co-wrote and produced the film, were last recognized with a Writers Guild Award in 2019 for Trump’s Takeover, their 2018 FRONTLINE documentary that investigated former President Trump’s high-stakes battle for control of the GOP and examined how he attacked fellow Republicans and used inflammatory rhetoric that rallied his base and further divided the country during his first year as president.

FRONTLINE also earned  a second WGA nomination this year, for Kirk and Wiser’s 2022 documentary Pelosi’s Power in the “Documentary Script — Other Than Current Events” category.

“Michael Kirk and Mike Wiser are masters at chronicling American politics through sharp and unflinching narrative storytelling. With mounting threats to our nation’s democracy, we hope their FRONTLINE documentaries serve to inform and educate the American public on how our nation got to this point” says Raney Aronson-Rath, editor-in-chief and executive producer of FRONTLINE. “Congratulations to the entire FRONTLINE team on this win and thank you to the Writers Guild for recognizing Lies, Politics and Democracy.”

You can watch the winning and nominated FRONTLINE documentaries below:

Lies, Politics and Democracy (credits)

Pelosi’s Power (credits)