Steve Kroft

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Steve Kroft (born August 22, 1945) is an American journalist and a longtime correspondent for 60 Minutes. His investigative reporting has garnered him much acclaim, including three Peabody Awards and nine Emmy awards, one of which was an Emmy for Lifetime Achievement.

Contents

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life

Born on August 22, 1945 in Kokomo, Indiana, Kroft attended Syracuse University, where he earned his bachelor's degree in 1967.[1] After his graduation, he was drafted into the United States Army and served in the Vietnam War.[2] He was assigned to the 25th Infantry Division in Cu Chi, where he was a reporter for the Armed Forces Network; he covered the Division's participation in the invasion of Cambodia. Kroft won several Army journalism awards for his work and a Bronze Star Medal for Meritorius Achievement.[citation needed] When the Division was redeployed, he was reassigned to the military newspaper Stars and Stripes as a correspondent and photographer.[2]

Shortly after receiving an honorable discarge from the army in 1971, he began his broadcast journalism career as a reporter for WSYR-TV in Syracuse, NY.[2] Kroft returned to academics in 1974, enrolling at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and earning his masters degree in 1975.[3] Upon graduation Kroft moved to Florida, where he worked for two stations owned by the Washington Post Company. As an investigative reporter for WJXT in Jacksonville his reports on local corruption led to several grand jury investigations. In 1977 he moved to WPLG-TV in Miami, where his work came to the attention of CBS News.

[edit] CBS career

Kroft joined CBS News in 1980 as a reporter in their Northeast bureau, based out of New York City. The next year, he was named a correspondent and the network soon moved him to its Southwest Bureau in Dallas , where he stayed until 1983. That year, Kroft returned to Florida after CBS reassigned him to its Miami bureau. He was soon making frequent visits to the Caribbean and Latin America, covering the civil war in El Salvador and the U.S. invasion of Grenada.

In 1984, Kroft landed a job as a foreign correspondent at CBS's London bureau, where he travaled extensively to cover stories in Europe, Africa, Asia, and the middle east. Many of his assignments involved international terrorism and sectarian violence, including the hijackings of TWA Flight 847 and Achille Lauro, the Rome and Vienna airport attacks of the Abu Nidal Organization, the Lebanese Civil War, and the violence in Northern Ireland. His report for the CBS Evening News on the assassination of Indira Ghandi won him an Emmy. In 1986, CBS News brought Kroft back to the United States to become a principal correspondent on a new magazine show called West 57th and Stayed in that position until the program was cancelled in the spring of 1989.

That same September, Kroft and Meredith Viera, a West 57th collegue, joined 60 Minutes. [1] In 1990, he became the first American journalist to be given extensive access to the contaminated grounds of the Chernobyl nuclear facility, and his story won an Emmy.[3] After allegations of infidelity surfaced in the 1992 presidential election, then-Governor Bill Clinton and his wife, Hillary, gave an exclusive interview to Kroft. The interview was one of the defining moments in the election.[1]

Kroft continued to file groundbreaking reports for 60 Minutes. A 1992 segment which detailed a friendly fire incident in the Gulf War won him his first Peabody Award.[2] Two of Kroft's stories in 1994, a profile of Senator Bob Dole and an exposé on the Cuban government's quarantine policy for people infected with AIDS, won Emmy awards.[1] In 2003, he and the rest of the 60 minutes team were awarded Emmys for lifetime achievement.[4]

With his success, Kroft also branched out into other venues. He appeared as himself on an episode of Murphy Brown.[5] He played himself again in Woody Allen's 2000 movie, Small Time Crooks, in which he interviewed Allen's character for a segment on 60 Minutes.[6]

[edit] Personal

Kroft lives in New York with his wife, Jennet Conant, who is a journalist and author. They have one son, John Conant Kroft.[1]

[edit] Awards

  • 9-time Emmy Award winner including a Lifetime Achievement Emmy in 2003[1]
  • 3-time Peabody Award winner[1]
  • 1992 recipient of the George Arents Medal, the highest honor given to a Syracuse University alumnus[1]
  • Winner of the Renner Award for his 1996 story on organized crime in Russia[1]
  • Honorary Doctoral degrees from Indiana University; State University of New York, Binghamton; and Long Island University.

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Steve Kroft. CBS Broadcasting Inc.. Retrieved on 2006-11-16.
  2. ^ a b c d Four to receive honorary degrees. Inside Binghamton University (2000-05-18). Retrieved on 2006-11-16.
  3. ^ a b Steve Kroft Biography. Hollywood.com. Retrieved on 2006-11-16.
  4. ^ Rogers, Steve. 60 Minutes to Receive 2002 Lifetime Achievement Award for News & Documentary. The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. Retrieved on 2006-11-16.
  5. ^ Steve Kroft. Internet Movie Database. Retrieved on 2006-11-16.
  6. ^ Taylor, Charles (2000-05-19). "Small Time Crooks". Salon.com. Retrieved on 2006-11-16.


60 Minutes Correspondents
Christiane Amanpour • Ed Bradley • Anderson Cooper • Katie Couric • Steve Kroft • Lara Logan • Scott Pelley • Dan Rather • Harry Reasoner • Morley Safer • Diane Sawyer • Bob Simon • Lesley Stahl • Meredith Vieira • Mike Wallace
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