Lesley Stahl | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Stahl in 2025 | |
| Born | (1941-12-16)December 16, 1941 (age 84) Lynn, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Education | Wheaton College (BA) |
| Occupation | News reporter |
| Years active | 1971–present |
| Notable credit(s) | Face the Nation moderator (1983–1991) America Tonight Anchor (1990–1991) 60 Minutes Correspondent (1991–present) 48 Hours Host (2002–2004) |
| Spouse(s) | |
| Children | 1 |
Lesley Rene Stahl[1] (born December 16, 1941) is an American television journalist. She has spent most of her career withCBS News, where she began as a producer in 1971.[2] Since 1991, she has reported for CBS's60 Minutes.[3] She is known for her news and television investigations and award-winning foreign reporting. For her body of work she has earned various journalism awards including a Lifetime Achievement News and DocumentaryEmmy Award in 2003 for overall excellence in reporting.
Prior to joining60 Minutes, Stahl served asCBS NewsWhite House correspondent – the first woman to hold that job – during theJimmy Carter andRonald Reagan presidencies and part of the term ofGeorge H. W. Bush. Her reports appeared frequently on theCBS Evening News, first withWalter Cronkite then withDan Rather and on otherCBS News broadcasts.[4] During much of that time, she also served as moderator ofFace the Nation, CBS News's Sunday public affairs broadcast from September 1983 to May 1991. As a moderator onFace the Nation, she interviewed world leaders, includingMargaret Thatcher,Boris Yeltsin andYasser Arafat. From 1990 to 1991, she was co-host withCharles Kuralt ofAmerica Tonight, a daily CBS News late-night broadcast of interviews and essays.
Stahl was born in 1941 to aJewish family[5] in theBoston suburb ofLynn, Massachusetts, and was raised inSwampscott, Massachusetts. She is the daughter of Dorothy J. (née Tishler) and Louis E. Stahl, a food company executive.[1][5][6] She attendedWheaton College in Massachusetts, where she was an honors graduate, majoring in history.[7]
Throughout her 55-year career in journalism, Stahl has covered such iconic moments in United States history as theWatergate scandal in 1972, theimpeachment hearings of President Nixon in 1974, the1981 assassination attempt on President Reagan and the 1991Gulf War.[8][9] She reported on the U.S./Russian summit meetings and the economic summits of the industrialized countries, as well as the national political conventions and election nights throughout her career. In her TV news career, she has investigated theenhanced interrogation methods againstAl Qaeda during theIraq War, the crueltySaddam Hussein inflicted on Iraqi children, in addition to examining practices withinGuantánamo Bay and operatives. She has also reported on tensions within theMiddle East and theIsraeli–Palestinian conflict.
Stahl began her television broadcasting career at Boston's original Channel 5,WHDH-TV, as a producer and on-air reporter.[10] She joined CBS News in 1971, and became a correspondent in 1974. "I was born on my 30th birthday," Stahl would later write about the experience. "Everything up till then was prenatal."[11] Stahl credits her CBS News hire to theFederal Communications Commission's 1972 inclusion of women in its affirmative action mandate: "the television networks were scouring the country for women and blacks with any news experience at all. A friend in New York had called to tell me about a memo floating around CBS News mandating that 'the next reporter we hire will be a woman.'"[12] According to Stahl,Connie Chung andBernard Shaw were "the two other 'affirmative action babies' in what became known as the Class of '72."[13] Stahl reflected in an interview on her early days at CBS how, on the night of the '72 Nixon-McGovern election returns, she found her on-air studio chair marked with masking tape, not with her name as with her colleagues, but with "Female". Stahl was the mentor of CBS news producerSusan Zirinsky.[14]
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Stahl's prominence grew after she coveredWatergate:[15]
I found an apartment in theWatergate complex, moved all my stuff from Boston, and didn't miss a day of work. ... June 1972. Most of the reporters in our bureau were on the road, covering the presidential campaign. Thus, I was sent out to cover the arrest of some men who had broken into one of the buildings in the Watergate complex. That CBS let me, the newest hire, hold on to Watergate as an assignment was a measure of how unimportant the story seemed: ... I was the only television reporter covering the early court appearances. When the five Watergate burglars asked for a bail reduction, I got my first scoop. Unlike my competitors, I was able to identify them. The next time the cameraman listened when I said, 'Roll! That's them!' And so CBS was the only network to get pictures of the burglars. I was a hero at the bureau.
Stahl was the moderator ofFace the Nation between September 1983 and May 1991. She went on to becomeWhite House correspondent during the presidencies ofJimmy Carter,Ronald Reagan andGeorge H. W. Bush. At the Republican Convention of 1980, she broke the news on CBS that Reagan's negotiations with ex-PresidentGerald Ford had broken down and the answer to the question of who would be vice-presidential nominee was: "It's Bush! Yes, it's Bush!" George H. W. Bush had been standing perhaps not far away, largely off by himself, looking discouraged because he was sure he wasn't going to be chosen. During her time atCBS she covered the1981 assassination attempt on President Reagan, and the1991 Gulf War. She reported on the U.S.-Russian summit meetings and the economic summits of the industrialized countries, as well as the national political conventions and election nights, throughout her career.[16]
In 1998, she appeared on theNBC sitcomFrasier, playing herself in the episode "Desperately Seeking Closure".[citation needed]Stahl has written two books, the first of which,Reporting Live, was published in 1999:
I had decided by August 1989, in my 48th year, that I had already had the best day of my life. ... Then we went toRwanda to see themountain gorillas,Dian Fossey's gorillas in the mist. ... After two and a half hours ... there they were: two baby gorillas frolicking like any four-year-olds. We snapped and stared. We were right there,in their lives, in the middle of their open-air house. And then the silverback, the patriarch, seemed to welcome us, as three females kept grooming him. ... We spent one hour in their world, watching them tumble and wrestle, nurse their babies, swing in the trees, forage for food—vines, leaves, berries— ... so close that a female reached out to touch me. When I went to reciprocate, the guide hit my arm with a stick."Non, madame. C'est inderdit." ... What I decided that day with the gorillas in Rwanda was that the best day of your life may not have happened yet. No matter what you think.[17]
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In addition, she hosted48 Hours Investigates from 2002 to 2004. In 2002, Stahl made headlines whenAl Gore appeared on60 Minutes and revealed for the first time that he would not run for president again in 2004. WhenKatie Couric was hired, CBS News asked Stahl to reduce her salary by $500,000 to accommodate Couric's salary, bringing her salary down to $1.8 million.[18][19]
In 2007, Stahl gained attraction for her interview with the then-French PresidentNicolas Sarkozy for a60 Minutes when the President abruptly ended the conversation and walked out, calling it "stupid" and a "big mistake". Sarkozy criticized Stahl for questions regarding his wife, Cecilia. Sarkozy and his wife announced their divorce two weeks after the interview.
Lesley Stahl was a founding member in 2008, along withLiz Smith,Mary Wells Lawrence, andJoni Evans, ofwowOwow.com, a website for "women over 40" to talk about culture, politics, and gossip.[20] By the end of 2010 it had merged intoPureWow, a Web site aimed at younger women.
In 2014, she served as a correspondent forYears of Living Dangerously, a documentary show aboutclimate change.[21] Her second book,Becoming Grandma: The Joys and Science of the New Grandparenting, which chronicles her own experiences with her grandchildren, was published in 2016.
During the2020 United States presidential election campaign, Stahl interviewed President Trump on October 20, 2020, for a segment on60 Minutes. Trump cut short the interview and complained about it on Twitter.[22][23][24] On October 22, Trump released the full interview on Facebook,[25] ahead of its planned official release on60 Minutes on October 25.[26]
In May 2021, Stahl received criticism from LGBTQ advocacy groups for a60 Minutes special about transgender healthcare.CBS News, the producer of60 Minutes, reported the special as coming "amid a spate of legislation being introduced in states across the country that would limit care for transgender youth", and said that the special focused on "detransitioners".[27] Advocacy groupGLAAD called it "fearmongering about trans youth",[28] whileChase Strangio of theACLU said that Stahl and others involved with the production "knew exactlythe harm they were causing with last night's segment".[29]
In 1977, Stahl married authorAaron Latham and they have a daughter.[33] Latham died in July 2022 from complications of Parkinson's disease.
On the May 3, 2020, broadcast of60 Minutes, Stahl revealed that she had been hospitalized withCOVID-19. She since recovered.[34]
She is a currently a member of theCouncil on Foreign Relations.[35] Stahl is also on the Board of Selectors ofJefferson Awards for Public Service.[36]
Stahl grew up in Swampscott, Mass. with a younger brother. Their father is a wealthy Jewish food company executive, their mother an unproduced screenwriter.
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| Preceded by | Face the Nation Moderator September 18, 1983 – May 19, 1991 | Succeeded by |
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