Lesley Stahl

(CBS) 

Lesley Stahl has been a "60 Minutes" correspondent since March 1991. The 2011-12 season marks her 21st on the broadcast.

Stahl's two reports from the Middle East in the fall of 2010, "Unfinished Business" about Iraq, and "City of David," about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, were honored by the Overseas Press Club for Best Interpretation on International Affairs. Early that year, her exclusive report on the "Bloom Box," a potentially revolutionary alternative energy device, made news and waves on the Internet for weeks. Her reporting on the life of a young, musical savant won her an Edward R. Murrow award for feature reporting for her 2008 follow-up on Rex Lewis-Clack. Her interviews with the families of the Duke Lacrosse players exonerated in a racial rape case and with Nancy Pelosi before she became the first woman to become speaker of the house were big scoops for "60 Minutes" and CBS News in 2007. She won an Emmy for her timely interview of Hewlett-Packard head Pattie Dunn in 2006. Her other exclusive "60 Minutes" interviews with former Bush administration officials Paul O'Neill and Richard Clarke ranked among the biggest news stories of 2004. She was the first to report that Al Gore would not run for president, in a "60 Minutes" interview broadcast in 2002.

Prior to joining "60 Minutes", Stahl served as CBS News White House correspondent during the Carter and Reagan presidencies and part of the term of George H. W. Bush. Her reports appeared frequently on the "CBS Evening News", first with Walter Cronkite, then with Dan Rather, and on other CBS News broadcasts.

During much of that time, she also served as moderator of "Face the Nation," CBS News' Sunday public-affairs broadcast (September 1983-May 1991). For "Face the Nation," she interviewed such newsmakers as Margaret Thatcher, Boris Yeltsin, Yasir Arafat and virtually every top U.S. official, including George H. W. Bush and Vice President Dan Quayle.

From October 1990 to March 1991, Stahl supplemented her work at the White House and on "Face the Nation" by joining Charles Kuralt as co-anchor of "America Tonight," a daily CBS News late-night broadcast of interviews and essays.

Her experiences covering Washington for more than 20 years became the subject of her book Reporting Live (Simon & Schuster, 1999). The stories she has covered since joining CBS News in the Washington bureau in 1972 range from Watergate through the 1981 assassination attempt on President Reagan to the 1991 Gulf War. She has reported on every U.S.-Russian summit meeting since 1978, every economic summit of industrialized countries since 1979 and every national political convention and election night since 1974.

Stahl anchored several CBS News documentaries, including "The Politics of Cancer" and "In the Red Blues," about the budget deficit, both for "CBS Reports."

She has a collection of Emmy Awards for her interviews on "Face the Nation" and her "60 Minutes" reporting, including a Lifetime Achievement Emmy given in September 2003. Her "60 Minutes" reports "How He Won the War," about former FDA Commissioner David Kessler's battle with the tobacco industry, and "Punishing Saddam," which exposed the plight of Iraqi citizens, mostly children, suffering the effects of the United Nations sanctions against Iraq, were both Emmy winners. "Punishing Saddam" also won Stahl an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Journalism Award. Her profile of search engine giant Google earned her a 2005 Business and Financial Emmy award, and more recently, her 2006 interview of ex-Hewlett-Packard Chairwoman Patricia Dunn won an Emmy for coverage of a breaking news story.

In 1996, Stahl was awarded the Fred Friendly First Amendment Award, given by Quinnipiac College in Hamden, Conn., in recognition of her journalistic achievements. She was also honored that year by the Radio/Television News Directors Association (RTNDA) with an Edward R. Murrow Award for Overall Excellence in Television for her reports on the Michigan Militia. In 1993, she received a Matrix Award for Broadcasting, presented by New York Women in Communications Inc., which recognizes and honors women for outstanding career achievement. In 1990, she was honored with the Dennis Kauff Journalism Award for lifetime achievement in the news profession.

Stahl was born December 16, 1941, in Swampscott, Mass., and was graduated cum laude in 1963 from Wheaton College, where she served on the board of trustees. She currently serves on the board of the New York City Ballet. She and her husband, author Aaron Latham, live in New York. They have a daughter, Taylor.

[mildman102]

Ms. Stahls' liberal bias was very apparent in her interview of Mr. Cantor. We deserve the truth from 60 minutes and not someones political agenda. She would have never treated a liberal that way.
We were foooled in 2008, but not again.

[donswede]

Leslie Stahl,
Regarding Eric Cantor, compromise is a two way street. Cantor tries to define the difference between a person's principles and differences of issues. You never call President Obama on his refusal to compromise (no oil pipe line) on pure political issues. Also, why do you care of people's personal opinion of Obama when the press failed to criticize people's over-the-top comments of George W. Bush? Your stories appeal to "mush heads" that are ill informed.

[Im_JustSayin]

I don't really think you'll get very far commenting on here. I doubt Ms. Stahl pays much attention to this comment section and I'm sure even if she did read it she would be just about as tone deaf as the rest of the media has been since Mr. Obama was elected President.

As for tonight's story on Rep. Cantor, she lost her objectivity very early on when she kept hammering him about why he wouldn't compromise with the President. A fair person might ask where they found common ground and had the other side offered to compromise? But those questions are never asked by this news media, they just assume this President is right about everything.

The left keeps talking about raising taxes on the rich. I'm not rich, in fact I'm probably in the percentage that doesn't actually pay personal income tax. However, that doesn't mean I want the government to raise taxes on the rich. Do me a favor Lesley Stahl do a story about how much in taxes an average American like me pays during the course of a year. I may not pay income taxes, but I pay sales and property taxes, and all kinds of other special taxes like gasoline and tobacco(if I smoke)taxes. The more money you give this government, the more they will spend. Mr. Cantor is right you have to shut the spending down.

About the Democrats effort to raise taxes on millionaires, I'm positive that many republicans actually said they would go along with a modest adjustment, but you have to close the loopholes first. However, the Democrats did not COMPROMISE there, they wanted it just they way they said. Now what sense would it make to just raise the tax rates and not close the loopholes. They would still pay nothing out of the higher rates.

Where was the compromise in the first two years of Mr. Obama's administration? Why didn't Ms Stahl care about republicans then? It's funny how many in the media go straight to how low congress' approval rating is, but I wonder what the approval rating of the media is?

Ms. Stahl and the president would do well to remember that all politics are local. Congress as a whole may have a low approval rating, but many of the representatives have high approval ratings at home, and that's what wins elections.

Warren Skinner
Cape Girardeau, MO

[dja61]

Dear Ms Stahl,

I think your reporting is really good, but there is more to congressional oversight of this whole mess and the subsequent TARP bailout.

My employer, State Street Corporation, a large Mutual fund firm in Boston, received approximately $3 billion in US government TARP bailout money about two years ago, and is now embarked on a program (A Joint Venture "JV" with SYNTEL of TROY, MI) of sending hundreds of jobs (in "small increments" in order to avoid the attention of the media, the press, and politicians) to India where the workers will receive approximately $400 per month to perform work for which American workers in Boston and in Kansas City, and Irvine, California, currently receive approximately $3,200 a month on average to perform.

When my employer needed help. the federal government bent over backwards and provided a huge amount of operating capital - which ultimately came from each American Worker.

Currently in the cities of Pune, Chennai, and Mumbai, India, there are large campuses filled with workers from a company called "Syntel" where hundreds of workers are performing - Fund Accounting, Portfolio of Investments compilations, and Custody work. All of these people are now doing work that was once being done by Americans in Kansas City, Irvine California, and Boston, and other parts of Massachusetts. I was told by one of the Syntel workers that in Pune alone over 1,200 workers are now performing jobs which less than two years ago were being performed in Massachusetts, and Kansas City.

I was told by a Administrative person who works in the office of the Unit Head, that State Street plans by the end of 2012 to move almost all of the Fund Admin operations - which is about 725 people, to Mumbai and Punai where "Syntel" will perform all of these jobs leaving several hundred Massachusetts. Irvine CA, and or Kansas City residents out of work at a crucial time in our economy and our history. If you contact State Street and they tell you they are not going forward with the "JV" They are lying - We Just trained a bunch of guys last week. The following is the address and phone number of the largest "offshore" facility State Street has created in INDIA, you can call these people to verify my story is true if State Street will not admit they are operating this "JV" and hurting the US economy:
State Street Syntel Services Pvt. Ltd. | Risk and Compliance | Syntel GDC, MIDC Software Technology Park, Talawade, Pune 412 114, India. ( [phone] |

If the US congress enacted a "Jobs Expatriation Act" which require any corporation - with 100 employees or more - doing business in the US to file paperwork each year with the Federal government indicating just how many employees they (the corporations) have on their payroll. If there were any change in employment figures within such a firm during a given year based on the fact that an organization "expatriated" US jobs to a foreign country, than that entity would have to pay the federal government a $250,000 tax per job expatriated. If such a firm within that year failed to report such activity, a fine of $500,000 would be assessed for any unreported "expatriated" US employment.

This act would halt corporations like my current employer "State Street Corporation" from depleting the US job base to enrich the lives of a few corporate officers, and a hand full of institutional investors - who are presumably pretty wealthy to begin with.

Thank you

Dan Armstrong
8 Hall Ave #3
Braintree, MA 02184
617-820-6009

[ObjectiveNewsNeeded]

Ms Stahl - Was once again angry at your accurate but incomplete story regarding corruption in Congress. Very similar to your stated anger directed at Mr Abramoff - you hurt our country by your partial and slanted coverage based on your Progressive worldview. Another example was your interview of Al Gore and his Global Warming rants - and not contacting highly qualified scientific opponents. Dr Groseclose at UCLA has published a book "Left Turn" that exemplifies you and your bias perfectly. Please also report on the deep corruption and moral failures of many Democrats. Thank you.

[pausmith44]

Ms. Stahl. You had a fantastic story on sixty minutes tonight about the lobbyist who are destroying America. They needed to be exposed but you put all of the blame on the Republicans. Are you saying the Democrats are honest and not on the take? Well, I can't believe that. You only comfirmed how bias the news people have become instead of reporting the news as it is.

[csalt753]

Lesley
My 55m company nor my self, will NEVER purchase or again be associated with any ge products. j immelt is a disgrace.
LDC

[craigw1x]

Hello Leslie,
I have always admired your work and look forward to many more stories.

As a petroleum/chemical engineer, I was very taken with your "Bloom Box" story of last year. I would think a great follow-up story would be to see how this technology is moving (or not moving) to full commerciality. What are the problems/holdups/or vested interest fights that are going on behind the scenes?

I see tremendous potential for residental "Bloom Box" use, being we already have a natural gas distribution system in place to residences. Do we need an electric power grid? - particularly if a Bloom Box can convert natural gas to electricity at the end user's location. Chesapeake Gas CEO says there is endless gas now (also on 60 minutes) in the USA. Is the energy crisis nearly solved when you add electric cars charged at residences - all powered by natural gas and "Bloom Boxes?" I would have thought I would have heard a lot more about the technology advancing by now.

Seems like a follow up story to see where the Bloom Box stands today, would be of very high interest to your audience.

Thank you for your consideration!

[wms121]

Leslie,

Now that the new "2011 TV Season" has started...can you guys do followup on a few items, one of them is your 1996 story on Area 51 see:

http://www.ufomind.com/area51/articles/1996/60min_960317.html

Some recent activities may indicate that the US Gov is running a
Secret Space Program see:

http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread492046/pg27
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAFeah-FvUY
http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread492046/pg1 <--see* OP
http://www.secretspaceprogram.com/

The "original OP* posted info on 'visiting Elenin'" has been
completely removed.

WW



*{Don't interview John Lear or even Barack Obama...but see if Dick Cheney wants to get anything his chest...now that he is having a "yack attack with Colin Powell". I was informed by
an 'internet source in the know' that the former VP has visited
Mars)

[vegasliz]

Dear Lesley Stahl,

I was watching your report on Cesar Millan this last Sunday 8/28/11 and have a few comments.
The statement "soothing the savage beasts that no one else can" is false. If you look at the web site of MP K9 All Breed Dog Training you will find that Gregory has been doing the same and has over 30 years of experience.
This is from the web site:
At 25 I became a family man and joined the Military Police Corp, intent on working K9. By age 28 I got my chance. During my time in K9 I worked police patrol, point (lead) for the Special Forces (Green Beret) jungle patrols, narcotic detection with DEA, bomb dog trainer and K9 Liaison between the US Government and the Republic of Panama. I've been bitten more than I care to remember and probably will be bitten many more times before I retire from working with dogs all together. Dogs have always given me more than I could have ever given them. They have saved my life and the lives of others on many occasions. They have been my partners and friends for a lifetime. Now I train dogs not so much for the money but because a trained dog with an informed owner has less chance of ending up at the end of a lethal injection needle for being vicious.
Gregory also makes house calls and trains the owners, as well as training the dogs.

I was appalled as a US Citizen that you and Cesar seemed happy and even joked that he came to the United States by jumping over the border working as a dog groomer, walker and trainer while being illegal citizen. He just got lucky when his path crossed with Jada Pinkett Smith. She hired him knowing he was illegal and didn't speak English.

I think you should look at the MP K9 Dog Training web site and see that Gregory is a United States Veteran and the credentials he has. Give the American soldier the credit he deserves!