Steve Hartman

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Steve Hartman photo from CBS News
Steve Hartman photo from CBS News

Steve Hartman (born April 1963) is a columnist and correspondent for CBS News.

From 1984-87, Hartman served as an intern and general assignment reporter for WTOL in Toledo, Ohio. From 1987-91, he was a feature reporter for KSTP in Minneapolis and held the same post at WABC-TV in New York from 1991-94. From 1994-98, he served as a feature reporter for KCBS-TV in Los Angeles. Hartman was also a correspondent for two CBS News magazines, Public Eye with Bryant Gumbel (1997-98) and Coast to Coast (1996-97). In 1998, Hartman became a full-time CBS News correspondent and in 2002, he joined 60 Minutes II as a columnist before the show was canceled September 2, 2005.

Hartman is best known for his award-winning feature series, Everybody Has a Story, based on his belief in a theory of the same name. To prove his point, Hartman would throw a dart at a map of the United States and then travel with his cameraman Les Rose to wherever the dart would land. Upon arrival, Hartman would find a phonebook and randomly call someone in the book, hoping to to tell their "story." His adventures took him around the country, from Hawaii to Alaska, from Buckhannon, W.V. to Miami, FL. Hartman got the idea from newspaper reporter David Johnson of Idaho's Lewiston Morning Tribune.

Hartman also gained national attention for his story on Jason McElwain, an autistic high school basketball manager, who ended up playing in a game and scoring twenty points in just four minutes. CBS received so many requests to re-broadcast the episode on McElwain after it aired that they did so the next night.

Hartman's current series, Assignment America, airs Fridays on CBS Evening News with Katie Couric. In Assignment America, Hartman finds three interesting stories and lets the American public select which one they'd most like to see.

Hartman is a graduate of Bowling Green State University. He lives in New York.


[edit] Awards

  • Recipient of nearly two dozen local Emmys
  • Recipient of the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award
  • 4-time recipient of RTNDA/Edward R. Murrow Awards