public broadcasting

Description

TOP SECRET AMERICA: 9/11 to the Boston Bombings - premieres 9pm, Thursday 30 May PBS America | Virgin Media 243 | Sky 166 | pbsamerica.co.uk In the wake of the Boston Marathon bombings, Americans are asking why the country's intelligence agencies failed to prevent the devastating attack. Have the hundreds of billions of dollars spent since 9/11 on counterterrorism efforts made Americans any safer? In this exclusive collaboration with FRONTLINE (America's flagship current affairs series), Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Dana Priest traces the journey from 9/11 to the marathon bombings, examines efforts to improve information sharing among federal agencies tasked with keeping Americans safe and investigates the secret history of the 12-year battle against terrorism. This investigation delves deep into a top-secret world that, Priest says, "has become so large, so unwieldy and so secretive that no one knows how much money it costs, how many people it employs, how many programmes exist within it or exactly how many agencies do the same work." So how do you investigate a world the government doesn't want you to see? What, exactly, is Top Secret America spending so much money on behind closed doors? And is it making Americans any safer? How would they even know? In the 12 years since 11 September 2001, FRONTLINE has produced nearly 50 hours of award-winning films documenting the 9/11 attacks and America's response to them for PBS. A collaboration between FRONTLINE and Pulitzer Prize-winning Dana Priest, TOP SECRET AMERICA: 9/11 TO THE BOSTON BOMBINGS is based on Dana's reporting with William Arkin for their 2010 Top Secret America series in the Washington Post, which took two years to report and over a dozen journalists to complete. An update of TOP SECRET AMERICA (2011), this revisited film premiered across the United States via PBS's 360 member stations on 30 April 2013. About PBS America (Sky 166 | Virgin Media 243 | pbsamerica.co.uk) PBS America showcases the best American history, science, current affairs, arts and culture shows, alongside critically acclaimed documentaries from living legend Ken Burns - all hand picked by a British team. PBS America is the UK arm of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), which has been entertaining and enriching television audiences across the USA since 1969.