PRESS RELEASE:

In an unprecedented collaboration among public media’s most respected news outlets, FRONTLINE and Marketplace launch a groundbreaking media investigation this month into campaign finance practices.

For Big Money 2012, FRONTLINE joins forces with American Public Media’s signature business news program, Marketplace, as well as the PBS NewsHour and the independent, nonprofit newsroom ProPublica to offer an in-depth investigation into the impact big money is having on America’s elections.

“As America prepares to elect its next president, this timely initiative explores the dramatic and changing impact of big money on our democratic process,” says FRONTLINE Deputy Executive Producer Raney Aronson Rath.

The centerpiece of the Big Money 2012 initiative is Big Sky, Big Money, a one-hour FRONTLINE documentary premiering Tuesday, October 30 at 9:00 p.m. on KUED. Reported by Marketplace Host and Senior Producer Kai Ryssdal, the documentary travels to the remote epicenter of the campaign finance debate: Montana, which has challenged the Supreme Court’s landmark Citizens United ruling in court. Through in-depth interviews and an examination of outside money pouring into the state in an attempt to influence one of the closest U.S. Senate races in the nation, Big Sky, Big Money offers a real life tale of money, power and political intrigue.

In addition to the documentary, the Big Money 2012 initiative will feature:

• A 25-minute web-exclusive FRONTLINE film on digital campaigning, featuring NewsHour correspondent Hari Sreenivasan about the new strategies campaigns are using to target hard-to-reach voters online. Visit www.pbs.org/frontline to see the film;

• A special interactive online feature allowing viewers to see how campaigns might be targeting them;

• Two news segments drawn from the web report that will air October 29 & 30 on the PBS NewsHour;

• A complementary print investigation produced by ProPublica to be published October 30;

• Four companion radio reports that have already begun airing on KUER’s Marketplace.

Note to Press: Marketplace host and FRONTLINE correspondent Kai Ryssdal is available for select media interviews to discuss his reporting in Big Sky, Big Money. Contact Diane_Hebert_Farrell@wgbh.org.

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