Bob Chitester is founder and president of Free To Choose Network, which includes a production arm (Free To Choose Media),
an educational initiative (izzit.org) and a publishing arm (Free To Choose Press).
With more than 40 years of experience creating programs and series for public television, and as a past president of the Erie public television station WQLN, Bob Chitester
continues to be creatively involved in the production of programs and series for Free To Choose Media and izzit.org.
Free To Choose
In 1980 Bob Chitester brought Milton Friedman to public television, serving as executive producer for Friedman's landmark PBS series Free To Choose,
as well as the best-selling book that emanated from the series. Reflecting on the series, Milton Friedman wrote: "Bob hit me at a particularly good time. I had just retired from active teaching at
the University of Chicago, and was in the process of moving from Chicago to San Francisco to join the Hoover Institution at Stanford University."
The Friedmans, like Chitester, saw the value of communicating the ideas of liberty to the masses: "Bringing these ideas to the large audience that a TV documentary could attract excited us."
Before his death in 2006, Milton Friedman concluded, "In the end, the project turned into the most exciting experience of our lives, so it is hard to reconstruct the doubts we had in advance about undertaking it." |
 When the Soviet Union collapsed,
Estonia created its first freely elected government. Mart Laar, the first Prime Minister of a free Estonia,says it was Milton Friedman's book Free To Choose that he used in shaping the new Estonia. Millions of people around the world have benefited from Friedman's ideas.
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Since Free To Choose
Free To Choose was a monumental achievement. So how does one keep such an enduring legacy?
Some highlights:
In 2011, Chitester and his team completed production of a new documentary program — Free or Equal — which celebrated the 30th anniversary of the creation of
Free To Choose.
Swedish author Johan Norberg hosts the program. Currently, Chitester and his team are coordinating
Milton Friedman's Century, a global effort to celebrate the man who embodied a movement.
Free To Choose Network continues to create popular media on the themes of "personal, political and economic freedom." |
Free To Choose Media Productions
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The Next Generation
When it comes to a free society, Chitester makes no bones about his real passion: the next generation. With izzit.org,
Chitester and his team have created an unparalleled pipeline to the classroom. With over 300,000 active teachers
(using at least one of izzit.org's products), Free To Choose Network reaches tens of millions of students across the U.S..
More About Bob
Bob Chitester holds BA and MA degrees from The University of Michigan and has received an honorary Doctor of Literature degree from Allegheny College.
Chitester and his team have won numerous awards over the years for his television productions,
including a CINE Golden Eagle Award,
a Media Access Award, a Gabriel Award,
multiple Telly Awards, and two Templeton Freedom Awards.
On a personal level, Chitester pursues physical fitness (running, swimming and biking), indulges in wood and clay sculpture, reads poetry publicly, is a hunter and cuts several cord of fire wood each year
when he is not flying about in airplanes as part of his responsibilities at Free To Choose Network. Bob and his wife Carol have four children and eight grandchildren.
