Former CNN executive joins J-School as visiting professor

Sid Bedingfield, former head of CNN’s US network, has joined the School of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of South Carolina as a visiting professor. Beginning this fall, Bedingfield will teach courses in broadcasting and a course on Telecommunications and Society that he is developing.

“It’s great to have Sid as a colleague again,” said Dean Charles Bierbauer. “He brings knowledge from both the news and business sides of broadcast journalism to our students. He’s in tune with the effect new media are having on the way we take in news and information.”

In nearly 20 years at CNN, Bedingfield held positions that included managing all domestic news programming and production, overseeing documentary and long-form programming, handling day-to-day newsroom management, and launching CNN International. In 2006, he became president and executive editor of California Fault Line Productions, a joint venture with PBS, producing online and television programming for the PBS network.

In 2001, Bedingfield directed CNN’s coverage of the 9/11 terrorist attacks and their aftermath, coverage awarded RTNDA’s Edward R. Murrow award. CNN documentary productions, under Bedingfield’s guidance, received Polk, Emmy, Headliner, Overseas Press Club and Edward R. Murrow awards. One documentary, “Autism is a World”, was nominated for an Academy Award.

Bedingfield is returning to South Carolina where he formerly worked for the Greenville News and for UPI as its state editor in Columbia.