Jules Bergman, ABC News Science Editor, takes his work seriously. While covering all 30 manned space flights in the U.S. space program, he completed much of the same rigorous training NASA puts its astronauts through, including weightlessness, centrifuge rides and heat exposure. It was Bergman who first realized the magnitude of the trouble aboard Apollo 13 when it sustained an explosion in deep space headed toward the moon. His quick action and technical knowledge enabled Bergman and ABC News to establish a clear news “beat” in television coverage of the return of Apollo 13.
A pilot himself, Bergman has covered the first flights of almost every new U.S. military and commercial aircraft, personally flying as many of them as possible. Thus, he was quickly able to analyze what had gone wrong with the Turkish Airlines DC-10 which crashed near Paris in March, 1974, in history's worst airline disaster.
As the space program slowed down, Bergman turned more of his attention to documentary work, doing a six-part series in 1973 called What About Tomorrow, which included half-hour programs on computers, health problems and our cities. Late in 1973, his analytical eye was put to work on ABC's highly praised Closeup series, winning him an Emmy for his performance as co-writer and narrator of ABC's “Closeup on Fire,” aired November, 1973.
He since has written and narrated ABC's Emmy-award nominee “Closeup on Oil: The Policy Crises,” “Closeup on Danger in Sports: Paying the Price,” winding up a busy year with a “Closeup on Crashes: The Illusion of Safety.” Recent projects include “Union In Space” (July, 1975), a special program on the Apollo Soyuz Test Project, as well as intensive coverage of the actual mission, and a “Closeup” on automobiles. Earlier programs include SST: Super Sound and Fury, 1971; Earthquake, 1972; Arms and Security: How Much Is Enough? 1972; Countdown to 2001, 1972.
He became the first full-time network science editor in the country in 1961 and his ability to experience a story personally and to combine it with knowledgeable reporting gives his news stories extra strength and depth. Test flying the new Boeing 727 jetliner in 1965, several of which had crashed, Bergman concluded that nothing was wrong with the plane but that airline training methods were inadequate. His appraisal was later borne out by FAA findings. In the field of medicine, he covered the beginnings of the transplant era, witnessing numerous open heart, valve and heart transplant operations from Los Angeles to Houston to New York becoming somewhat of a medical expert in his own right. He visited Star City, the cosmonauts' training center outside of Moscow, as preparation for the coverage of the Russian-American joint space project in July, 1975.
Appearing frequently on the ABC Evening News and on ABC Radio, he has run the gamut from the dangers of polyvinyl chloride to educational satellites, nuclear energy, the landscape of Mercury and bicycle safety. He has served regularly as co-anchorman of ABC News coverage of U.S. space flights, appearing on Special Reports before each space shot with interviews of the astronauts, many of whom are personal friends, and detailed explanations of their flight plans. He hosts occasionally on Issues and Answers, ABC's Sunday afternoon interview program, questioning guests from the fields of science and space.
For his writing and narration in “Closeup on Fire,” Bergman won an Emmy Award in 1974 and his “Closeup: Crashes” was nominated by the Writers Guild as the best written script of 1974 for a Current Event Documentary.
Bergman also has won the Aerospace Medical Association's Special Presidential Award, multiple prizes from the Trans World Airlines broadcast writing competitions and the Sherman Fairchild International Air Safety Writing Award. The first American to have his voice and picture transmitted to Europe via Telstar, Bergman was called by Newsweek in 1962 “the most knowledgeable” of all network space reporters.
He is the author of 90 Seconds to Space - the Story of the X-15 and Anyone Can Fly. He also has written many articles on space and science which have appeared in Reader's Digest, The New York Times, Esquire, TV Guide and others.
Bergman completed a Sloan-Rockefeller Advanced Science Writing Fellowship at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1960, where he concentrated on space, rocketry, oceanography, astronomy and medicine.
He began his news career in 1949 with Time magazine, first as copyboy then as writer-trainee in the medicine, science and religion sections. Later that year, he got his first broadcasting job at CBS. In 1950, he joined WFDR in New York as writer-newscaster, later becoming assistant director of news. At this time he began specializing in documentary programming with shows on mock-atomic bombing of New York, submarine warfare, and health and medicine problems.
He joined ABC News as a news writer in 1952 and has concentrated since that time on coverage of scientific news.
Bergman is a member of the National Association of Science Writers, The Aerospace Writers Association, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and the Wings Club.
He is a native of New York City and attended City College of New York and Indiana University, doing post-graduate studies at Columbia University.[1]
