David Bohrman

Bohrman was born on April 30, 1954, in Hollywood, Los Angeles, the son of Delle Bohrman and Stan Bohrman.[3][4] His mother is a television writer. His father, Stan Bohrman was an award-winning radio and television newsman, hosting Tempo on KHJ-TV in Los Angeles in the late 1960s and early 1970s with co-hosts Maria Cole and Regis Philbin. Stan had an extensive career in news and investigative reporting, including several years as a reporter and anchor at KPIX-TV in San Francisco, WTCN-TV in Minneapolis, and KYW-TV in Philadelphia. He died in 1994. Bohrman established an endowed fund for investigative reporting in his father's name at Stanford University. Bohrman had two sisters: Caren and Catherine.[5]

Bohrman lived in Palo Alto, California, with his wife Catherine Bohrman,[6] a sculptor focusing mainly on bronzes. They had two children, and two grandchildren.[3]

Bohrman died from complications of hip surgery on June 25, 2023, at the age of 69.[7][3]

Bohrman simultaneously earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in French and a Bachelor of Science in physical science from Stanford University. He later earned his Master of Science in Journalism at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.[8]

During the 2008 presidential race Bohrman created the YouTube Debates,[9] the Kodak Theatre Debate,[10] and the Reagan Library Debate in front of Air Force One. The 2008 election cycle also is known for his implementation of what became known as the "magic wall" (Multi-Touch Collaboration Wall) where CNN’s key analysts (especially John King) were able to take critical data visualization about the election to a new standard of depth and clarity. Also in 2008, on election night (as the key producer in charge of the global CNN Election Night in America program) he introduced television's first real-time "hologram" as correspondent Jessica Yellin and The Black Eyed Peas' will.i.am were "beamed" into the studio from Grant Park in Chicago where the Barack Obama celebration was taking place.[11]

Innovation has always been part of David Bohrman's work in politics and elections. The 2004 election cycle saw two key breakthroughs of his that fundamentally changed how elections, conventions, and even daily news can be produced. First was his idea to fully anchor CNN’s convention coverage from the convention floor, not the traditional anchor booth. This gave viewers a totally unique[12] and more realistic sense of the proceedings[13] than ever before and this continued through 2008. The second production leap that year came on election night. The program broke the traditional mold[14] and originated at the NASDAQ Market Site in Times Square.[15] The multiple screens brought the viewers additional content, from demographics to video feeds to 50 simultaneous vote boards to large individual boards. That venture led to the creation of The Situation Room on CNN, which relied on multiple video screens to tell stories.

The roots of innovation in politics for Bohrman go back to the 1988 and 2000 races for the White House. In 1988 he created the first electronic "site" of election information for ABC News and Peter Jennings (the 10,000 "cards" of hyper-media linked election information felt very much like the websites that would follow in a few years). The effort resulted in a new media startup at ABC called ABC News InterActive, which created multimedia award-winning products from ABC News.

For the 2000 political conventions in Philadelphia and Los Angeles, Bohrman was CEO of Pseudo.com, an internet television network. Pseudo not only had multiple video streams live during the convention, but also a skybox in the arena,[16] and several 360 degree cameras, one of which was “gathered” by the Smithsonian and put into the permanent collection of items related to US Presidents.

as executive producer or executive-in-charge:

• World News Now (ABC News)
• The Site (MSNBC)
• Imus in the Morning (TV version)
• The Moneyline NewsHour
• PseudoCenter (Pseudo.com)
• TechLive (Tech TV)
• NewsNight with Aaron Brown (CNN)
• Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer (CNN)
• State of the Union (CNN)
• John King, USA (CNN)

As president of CurrentTV

• The Young Turks with Cenk Ugygur
• Talking Liberally with Stephanie Miller
• The War Room with Jennifer Granholm
• Full Court Press with Bill Press
• The Gavin Newsom Show with Gavin Newsom
• Viewpoint with Eliot Spitzer

Granted US Patent # 5,109,482[17] (which concerns "Methods and systems for Media Consumption," a method for using a computer to retrieve and playback video segments from an interactive videodisc).

• 2014 recipient of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism Alumni Award
• 6 Emmy Awards
• 18 Emmy Nominations
• 2 Peabody Awards
• Christopher Award
• Arthur Ashe Award
• AP Headliner Award
• DuPont Award (as Sr. Producer of Nightline)
• Polk Award (as Sr. Producer of Nightline)
• 2 Golden Mike Awards
• Los Angeles Press Club Award
• Valley Press Club
• Women at Work award
• 2 MacWorld “Superstacks” Awards
• MacUser “Eddy” Award
• People Magazine, 1982, “Lookout” profile as the youngest network senior producer
• Silicon Alley Reporter, named one of the “Silicon Alley 100” most influential new media executives[23]

• Listed in 2011 Fast Company Most Innovative People in Business worldwide