His media career began at Boston radio station WBCN-FM where he would start his show with the line, "This is Danny Schechter, your news dissector".
The nickname was given to him by accident as he was introduced on-air by a colleague as "the news inspector, the news digester, the news dissector".
Schechter recalled, 'news dissector' that sounded pretty unique and good, so I basically latched onto it".
He would eventually rise to the position of news director for WBCN-FM.
Dissecting the news to Schechter meant he reported on the facts of a story, laid the background for the issue and then asserted why media outlets failed to accurately report on the story.
Schechter described himself as "a participatory journalist, a down-with-the-movement reporter, a manic media maven."
Among his many interviews was one with John Lennon and Yoko Ono in June 1973.

Schechter joined the start-up staff at CNN as a producer and later was a producer for the ABC newsmagazine 20/20, responsible for 50 segments of the program; he won two Emmy Awards and was nominated for two others including for a 1983 investigation of President Reagan's plans to fight and recover from all-out nuclear war co-produced with Bill Lichtenstein.

Schechter assisted musician Steven Van Zandt and record producer Arthur Baker in creating Artists United Against Apartheid, which was a group of musicians who released a protest album in 1985 entitled Sun City.

After working in corporate media Schechter decided to found Globalvision, a New York City-based television and film production company, with Rory O'Connor.
There Schechter created and executive-produced the series South Africa Now.
According to O'Connor the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) declined to distribute the program because of its anti-apartheid advocacy.
However, Globalvision circumnavigated PBS and went directly to individual public television stations where it was carried in over 150 markets.
Crew for South Africa Now were banned from South Africa itself, which made production of the show more difficult.

Schechter and O'Connor later co-produced Rights & Wrongs: Human Rights Television, which aired on American public television stations and in over 60 countries from 1992 to 1996.
He was the recipient of the Society of Professional Journalists' 2001 Award for Excellence in Documentary Journalism.
Schechter's film WMD: Weapons of Mass Deception won the Austin Film Festival's Documentary Film Award in 2004.

From 1999 to 2010, Schechter was also the executive editor and "blogger-in-chief" at the now-defunct MediaChannel.org, for which he wrote a nearly-3000-word daily blog on media and society.
Known for his sharp criticism of corporate media, Schechter was just as scathing in his opinions about PBS, who rejected several of his ideas for documentaries including a biography for American Masters on economist John Kenneth Galbraith.
In a 2002 column for Current Schechter wrote, "PBS is a land of niches and bailiwicks, a Japanese-style employment system topped with execs who seem to have cushy jobs for life if they play it safe.
They are thus very risk-averse and barely accountable to the public in whose name they are paid.”

Schechter died of pancreatic cancer on March 19, 2015 in New York City.
His media career began at Boston radio station WBCN-FM where he would start his show with the line, "This is Danny Schechter, your news dissector". The nickname was given to him by accident as he was introduced on-air by a colleague as "the news inspector, the news digester, the news dissector". Schechter recalled, 'news dissector' that sounded pretty unique and good, so I basically latched onto it". He would eventually rise to the position of news director for WBCN-FM. Dissecting the news to Schechter meant he reported on the facts of a story, laid the background for the issue and then asserted why media outlets failed to accurately report on the story. Schechter described himself as "a participatory journalist, a down-with-the-movement reporter, a manic media maven." Among his many interviews was one with John Lennon and Yoko Ono in June 1973.
Schechter joined the start-up staff at CNN as a producer and later was a producer for the ABC newsmagazine 20/20, responsible for 50 segments of the program; he won two Emmy Awards and was nominated for two others including for a 1983 investigation of President Reagan's plans to fight and recover from all-out nuclear war co-produced with Bill Lichtenstein.
Schechter assisted musician Steven Van Zandt and record producer Arthur Baker in creating Artists United Against Apartheid, which was a group of musicians who released a protest album in 1985 entitled Sun City.
After working in corporate media Schechter decided to found Globalvision, a New York City-based television and film production company, with Rory O'Connor. There Schechter created and executive-produced the series South Africa Now. According to O'Connor the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) declined to distribute the program because of its anti-apartheid advocacy. However, Globalvision circumnavigated PBS and went directly to individual public television stations where it was carried in over 150 markets. Crew for South Africa Now were banned from South Africa itself, which made production of the show more difficult.
Schechter and O'Connor later co-produced Rights & Wrongs: Human Rights Television, which aired on American public television stations and in over 60 countries from 1992 to 1996. He was the recipient of the Society of Professional Journalists' 2001 Award for Excellence in Documentary Journalism. Schechter's film WMD: Weapons of Mass Deception won the Austin Film Festival's Documentary Film Award in 2004.
From 1999 to 2010, Schechter was also the executive editor and "blogger-in-chief" at the now-defunct MediaChannel.org, for which he wrote a nearly-3000-word daily blog on media and society. Known for his sharp criticism of corporate media, Schechter was just as scathing in his opinions about PBS, who rejected several of his ideas for documentaries including a biography for American Masters on economist John Kenneth Galbraith. In a 2002 column for Current Schechter wrote, "PBS is a land of niches and bailiwicks, a Japanese-style employment system topped with execs who seem to have cushy jobs for life if they play it safe. They are thus very risk-averse and barely accountable to the public in whose name they are paid.”
Schechter died of pancreatic cancer on March 19, 2015 in New York City.
Danny Schechter