On the presidential Frontline: how PBS addresses ‘multiple Americas’

“It’s almost like we’re living in multiple Americas”, says Raney Aronson-Rath.

As editor-in-chief and exec producer on PBS’ investigative documentary strand Frontline, this tension is about to come to a head for the exec, with the 5 November US presidential election looming large on the horizon.

Conscious that US society is riven by entrenched divisions, Aronson-Rath believes Frontline is operating in “one of the most tumultuous times” the country has ever seen, and the most important thing its programming can do is offer “the widest aperture on America”.

Frontline can be likened to BBC’s Panorama, according to the exec, driven by its “North Star” – robust journalism. While the landscape of media and technology has evolved, she explains, Frontline has remained rooted in rigorous, truth-driven documentary filmmaking, backed by a well-resourced team of journalists, researchers, fact-checkers, archivists, and producers.

“We’re fair, we’re tough, but we’re definitely honest about what we’re seeing and what facts are at play,” she says. With misinformation and the onslaught of AI-generated content becoming a greater challenge, Frontline has doubled down on its commitment to original reporting, meticulously vetting every piece of footage used in their films.

The strand is preparing its dedicated election slate accordingly. Long-running documentary series The Choice – which has broadcast ahead of every US election season since 1988 – will provide a thorough, investigative biography of candidates Kamala Harris and Donald Trump.

Airing tomorrow (24 September), the single aims to inform the American public on the individuals they are voting for, besides their policies. It will detail Harris and Trump’s personal beliefs, where they come from, their ethics and what they care about in their own lives.

“We’re fair, we’re tough, but we’re definitely honest about what we’re seeing and what facts are at play”

Aronson-Rath says The Choice’s format, interweaving policy and investigative journalism with biography, provides an attractive balance for viewers. “That’s really what we’re all about: just informing voters on the choice that they’re going to make,” she explains.

For the first time, The Choice brand will be extended, delivering a second doc on 8 October, focusing on Harris and Trump’s running mates, Tim Walz and JD Vance. Frontline felt that it was “essential” for voters to know who the vice-presidential candidates are as much as their more storied colleagues, according to Aronson-Rath.

“When you think about the VP role, it’s often through the prism of being ‘less powerful’. This is, of course, true because people aren’t voting for a vice-president, but their policies matter. What they care about matters. They’re ‘in the room’. You should know where they’re from. You should have a sense of who’s on the ticket.”

Frontline is also prepping a third film – American Voices – airing on 28 October. The retrospective doc returns to group of Americans filmed ahead of the elections in 2020 to discover whether their vote has changed for the upcoming election and, if so, why.

Aronson-Rath says the doc is a refreshing addition to the line-up, enabling Frontline to go beyond the candidates and deliver, over time, an in-depth analysis of ordinary citizens from all different political and personal persuasions about how they have maintained or changed their viewpoints.

While other outlets also speak to the public about their vote, she says American Voices’ breadth of contributors and documentation timeframe offers unique insight – drawing sometimes surprising similarities between voters on both sides of the political divide.

“At the end of the day, everybody wants to have a safe home,” she acknowledges. “They want to be able to afford their home. They want to be able to go to school and have their kids go to a good school.”

Frontline is also embracing the power of short-form documentaries on YouTube with Short Docs, condensed, bite-sized stories designed to appeal to a younger generation of viewers and voters seeking and insightful content.

Aronson-Rath likens these docs to “chapters” of the candidates’ careers rather than the whole book offered by The Choice. The goal is to create an entry point to Frontline’s long-form content, with authenticity at the heart.

“What I’ve found with young people is that as long as it’s authentic and not boring, they’ll watch it,” she quips. “The focus is on telling stories in a contemporary style that people can come into and experience”.

As the election draws closer, Aronson-Rath says voters are facing the dilemma of: “which vision of America do you believe in”? Frontline’s coverage, she hopes, will help answer that question.