"Assignment Earth" fills a gap in the news

Some think that the biggest news stories in the world are not getting covered by mainstream media. That at least is the implicit argument of Gary Strieker, video producer of Assignment Earth on Yahoo! The former CNN correspondent struck out on his own last year to create and deliver environmentally-focused news that wasn't getting airtime from the networks. Christian Kallen profiles the maverick reporter.

Gary Strieker is an agitated guy. He's upset about what's happening to the state of the water table, about global warming, about ape smuggling in Africa, about the haze over the Great Smoky Mountains. And he's upset about the state of mainstream television news.

In 1995, after serving as a CNN correspondent and bureau chief in Kenya for 12 years, Strieker (sounds like "striker") proposed becoming the network's global environment correspondent. Strieker returned to the U.S. in 1996 and began producing the half-hour "Our Planet" show on CNN. He knew his beat and knew television news. But after the AOL-Time Warner merger, the show was cut.

Rather than remaining as a general correspondent ("If I had, I'd be in Baghdad right now"), Strieker struck out on his own and formed the Environment News Trust, a non-profit organization to produce the sort of news reports he knew needed coverage. At first it was a one-man-band operation, with Strieker drawing upon his decades of experience to script, shoot, edit and produce a series of 2-4 minute video stories on environmental issues. Thus was launched Assignment Earth, his video news series at Yahoo!

So far Strieker has produced 17 of these shows; he'd like to have 40 done by the end of the year. He's also working on a series of half-hour reports he hopes will run on PBS affiliates, and is looking for other like-minded correspondents to add to his team and help cover the regional issues. "I've got a family now, and have to stay close to home," he told me from Atlanta, where he lives with his wife (and sound tech) and their growing family.

"Our purpose with Assignment Earth is to explore what is happening to the planet. I stay away from things like recycling roof tiles, designing the green home, and those stories. We do news stories with a hard edge, not soft features," he says.

"We try to find a microcosm, something happening somewhere that is revealing about our natural world. It might be in Utah, or Florida, or Pacific Northwest, but you learn not only about what's happening there, but come away with a better understanding of an environmental problem that is generally applicable on a wider scale."

Though these problems and issues are known locally and sometimes merit wider coverage, Strieker is focused on creating a reliable source for environmental news rather than an incidental one. And, too, he is keenly aware of the juggernaut that is digital media. "In the future it will be all ‘news on demand,' and my theory is there is a demand for this news, and the number of clicks will show it. All we have to do is make these shows compelling enough."

Nonetheless, Strieker is far from optimistic about the beat he's carved out for himself. Assignment Earth may become a successful news source, but the news itself is not good. "We may think we're winning but ultimately we're going to lose. We're going to end up much more impoverished because of what we're doing to the planet."

To learn more about Assignment Earth, visit assignmentearth.org.