Michael Sommer

Michael Sommer is a Visiting Scholar at the Institute of Governmental Studies at the University of California, Berkeley

In 2006, as part of his continuing research on the impact of the internet and its revolutionary uses for campaigning and fundraising, Sommer helped to found The Journal of E-Government.

The periodical followed his internationally used 2003 text, co-written with his wife, Dr. Veronika Vis-Sommer, and Dr. Gregory Curtin, The World of E-Government (Haworth Press). In 2003 and 2004, the Sommers served as principal researchers for the United Nations' first two surveys of the implementation of electronic government activities by all its 192 member countries.

The Sommers as a journalistic team began their research and writing on these subjects on the invitation of several of America's leading universities. In 2000, they were both appointed Visiting Scholars at the Shorenstein Center of the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. This was followed by a two-year appointment as Visiting Fellows in History at Yale University. Visiting Scholar appointments followed in the Department of History at Columbia University, and a two-year appointment followed as Visiting Scholars in both History and Political Science at Stanford University. Most recently, they have undertaken most of their research and writing as Visiting Scholars at the University of California at Berkeley's Institute of Governmental Studies.

Both Sommers received internationally coveted appointments as Leon Feuchtwanger Memorial Writing Fellows at the University of Southern California, site of the Feuchtwanger Papers, which seeks to honor the great German novelist and Noble Prize candidate in literature.

They twice received Federal appointments as Visiting Fellows in National Security and Politics at the East-West Center, Honolulu where they began an investigation of the impact of information technology on China, scheduled for completion in late 2008.

While serving as political advisors, the Sommers have consulted in the campaigns of nine U.S. Presidents or presidential candidates, Republicans and Democrats, as well as three Prime Ministers of Great Britain, and three Chancellors of Germany.

Michael Sommer has served as a political advisor or broadcast or print journalist covering the campaigns of U.S. Presidents for many years. He was a speech writer or campaign strategy advisor in the presidential campaigns of John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, George McGovern, Jimmy Carter, Walter Mondale and Edward Kennedy. He was part of the foreign policy presidential advisory team for Senator John F. Kennedy, working with Governor Chester Bowles of Connecticut. He was a member of the advisory team for President Lyndon Johnson with the task of winning the California presidential primary for the President and successfully doing so, working with LBJ's Senior California Advisor, James Keane. Sommer was appointed to the "Brain Trust" of the Presidential campaign of Senator George McGovern by campaign manager Frank Mankiewicz; ironically, this earned him a place on one of President Nixon's "Enemies Lists" and he was thereupon audited by the Internal Revenue Service, with no adverse finding. He was appointed a speech writer and campaign strategist in the Presidential campaign of President Jimmy Carter and Vice President Mondale by campaign advisor Richard Moe. While he did some advising in the presidential campaign of Senator Robert F. Kennedy, he was with him on the night he was assassinated at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, while serving as producer for ABC Network Television News' coverage of Kennedy's successful California primary victory on June 5, 1968. He served as a ABC Network Television News field producer for the coverage of the successful presidential campaign of President Ronald Reagan. He served as a speech writer for the 1988 Presidential campaign of Senator Edward Kennedy, appointed by campaign advisor Frank Mankiewicz.

For several years, both Sommers were Senior Partners of Sheinkopf Ltd., New York City, the firm that created and produced the television spots for the successful 1996 campaign of President Clinton and Vice President Gore.

During the 1990's, the Sommers formed a partnership with Pierre Salinger, former Press Secretary to Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, to undertake special international public affairs projects.

Michael Sommer has been a frequent speaker on American presidential campaigns for the U.S. State Department.

He has served as a Visiting Professor and Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Corporate and Public Affairs, Manchester Metropolitan University, U.K. where he began to serve as a senior political commentator for The Journal of Public Affairs.

In 1989, the Sommers co-founded Berlin Associates, a public policy firm that advised European political leaders and major political parties. In that capacity, they advised all three major political parties in Great Britain and both major political parties in Germany.

The couple were among the first Americans asked for advice by the top staff of Soviet Prime Minister Gorbachev to begin exploratory talks on the first cooperative trade deals with America.

They have served as guest commentators for many newspapers and magazines, including The Los Angeles Times, Seattle Weekly, The Houston Chronicle, Paris Match, and The Jordan Times. They have written and commented upon a wide range of subjects for newspapers, magazines, academic journals, and radio and television networks in the U.S., Germany, France, and the U.K. Their research has appeared in Newsweek and The Washington Post, among many other publications, and they have been commentators on breaking news and feature stories on CNN, MSNBC, and many of the world's major television networks.

They have also written widely on the interplay between the media and terrorism, the first Chinese manned space missions and, more recently on bioterrorism for The Los Angeles Times, and are currently writing an investigating series on international cyber-terrorism.

Michael Sommer's pioneering research on terrorism and the media and his organizational activities on anti-terrorism were first honored by the government of Italy, which was among the first countries to have serious adverse experiences with terrorism.

As an American pioneer in anti-terrorism research and preventive measures, he helped to organize the first U.S. Conference on Media and Terrorism for the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration under a grant from the U.S. Department of Justice and many of America's major law enforcement agencies, in 1979 at the DePaul University Conference.

Here, while addressing many of America's top law enforcement officials, he was among the first journalists and presidential advisors to warn of and take seriously potential terrorist threats to America, more than 20 years before 9/11.

He helped to write and launch the first internationally-used textbook Terrorism, Media, and the Law, edited by Abraham H. Miller (Transnational Publishers).

Michael Sommer has won or been co-winner of 19 prestigious national and local awards in journalism and broadcasting, including the George Foster Peabody Award, two local Emmy Awards, eight California Associated Press Awards for investigative journalism, the Los Angeles Press Club Award for broadcast commentary, and the Thomas Alva Edison Award for science writing.

While News Director of KABC Talk Radio, Los Angeles, he won two Golden Mike Awards for broadcast commentary and two other Golden Mikes were awarded under his news direction. He won the California Newspaper Association Award as publisher and editor-in-chief of The Irvine World News for "the best middle-sized newspaper in California."

After a bill he wrote with his friend, California Assembly Speaker Jesse Unruh, for a State Ombudsman failed to pass the California Legislature for the second time, Michael Sommer successfully founded and became America's first broadcast ombudsman at studios of KABC Radio, ABC's flagship radio in Los Angeles. Over a four year period, he and his staff successfully resolved more than 120,000 citizen complaints against government agencies and businesses and saved consumers millions of dollars. He successfully helped to create Ombudsmen in four U.S. states, in the consumer division of the Federal government and in Fortune 500 corporations, including the Chrysler Corporation. He is currently writing on the potential impact of an Ombudsman for the People's Republic of China.

Michael Sommer's governmental career began as a senate investigator for the California State Senate Committee on Housing for the Elderly and Minorities, chaired by Senate Pro Tem Hugh Burns (D-Fresno). His investigative work led the committee to cite and suggest remedial legislation for many housing injustices against the elderly of minorities. This assignment led to his undertaking an article for Frontier magazine on the subject, which, in turn, led to his wider investigation for California Governor Edmund "Pat" Brown during his first gubernatorial campaign, again resulting in remedial legislation. His investigation of the denial of the constitutional rights of minorities resulted in his taking part in the rewriting of some of California's then racist housing laws.

In original broadcast programming, he helped to create the Talk Radio and News Talk radio formats, the consumer reporter, and the television docudrama, now world broadcasting staples. As a columnist for the Radio and Television News Directors Association, he successfully campaigned for the First Amendment right of non-commercial broadcasters to editorialize.

Michael Sommer holds an A.B. from the University of California, Berkeley, a M.S. from U.C.L.A., and a Ph.D. in telecommunications, information theory, and communication from the University of Southern California where he became a member of the faculty and was twice voted an Outstanding Professor. He attended both the U.C.L.A. School of Law and the University of California's Hastings College of Law.

While in Washington, D.C., he was on the journalism faculty of the University of Maryland, College Park. He won the Distinguished Teaching Award of all campuses of the California State University, the youngest professor to do so. He has served as a Visiting Professor at several university campuses throughout the world, including appointments as Visiting Professor of Political Science, Criminal Justice, and Journalism at Seattle University and Visiting Professor of American Studies at Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany.

In national competition, he was selected as one of the nation's most promising broadcast journalists and won the CBS News Fellowship to undertake graduate study in sociology at Columbia University.

The Sommers have jointly served as Lady Jane Franklin Visiting Scholars at the University of Tasmania, Australia, and Research Scholars at Cardiff University. They were Research Scholars at the Gramsci Institute, Rome and were Visiting Scholars in Politics at the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand.

The Sommers have been guests of the leaders and governments of France (twice), Germany, Russia (three times), China, Austria, Australia, New Zealand and Mexico.

Both Sommers practice martial arts. Michael Sommer was taught Tae Kwon Do by black belt Heidi White, who received her instruction from the legendary Chuck Norris, who, in turn, was taught by the brilliant and revolutionary martial arts legend, Bruce Lee.