Cultural Diversity Roster

Lesley Stahl is one of America’s most honored and experienced broadcast journalists. Her rich career has been marked by political scoops, investigations, surprising features and award-winning foreign reporting, a body of work that won her the Lifetime Achievement Emmy in 2003 for overall excellence in reporting.

She began her 30th season on 60 Minutes in September 2019, having joined the broadcast as a correspondent in March 1991. She is the author of two best-selling books: “Reporting Live,” about her work as a White House Correspondent, and more recently, “Becoming Grandma.”

Her recent work at 60 Minutes includes three interviews with Donald J. Trump, the first when he was the Republican nominee in 2016; the second was his first television sit-down as President; and more recently a one-on-one at the end of his second year in office.

Nancy Pelosi gave Stahl her first TV interview as Speaker of the House in 2007 and again, when she returned as Speaker, in 2019.

Stahl’s revealing interview with the new Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos was the subject of headlines and political talk shows. She earned an Emmy for a shocking 2015 report on how some police recruit vulnerable young people for dangerous jobs as confidential informants. She won her 13th Emmy for her interview with the widow of a slain hostage that offered a rare look inside the technically illegal process of negotiating with terrorists.

In 2013, Stahl gained unprecedented access to the U.S.’s Guantanamo Bay prison facilities for a two-part series honored with an Edward R. Murrow award. In 2014, she won two Emmys, one for the Guantanamo series and another for an eye-opening story about China’s huge real estate bubble. Later in 2014, she was honored by the International Center For Journalists with its Founders Award for Journalistic Excellence.

Her uplifting feature, “Gospel for Teens,” was recognized with two Emmy Awards in 2012.

That same year, her whistleblower interview with F-22 Raptor pilots provided the first public personal accounts of the fighter’s oxygen system troubles, spurring the Secretary of Defense to take action. Stahl’s interview of a former CIA Clandestine Services chief about the use of “enhanced interrogation techniques” on al Qaeda operatives sparked a national debate.

These are just a few examples of the breadth and variety of stories she has covered. Others include two reports from the Middle East in the fall of 2010, “Unfinished Business,” about Iraq, and “City of David,” about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which were honored by the Overseas Press Club for Best Interpretation on International Affairs. Her look at the life of a young, musical savant won her an Edward R. Murrow award for feature reporting for her 2008 follow-up on the boy, Rex Lewis-Clack.

Stahl has an impressive portfolio of interviews with CEOs, featuring Larry Page of Google, Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase, Susan Wojcicki of YouTube, Beth Ford of Land O’Lakes and Reed Hastings of Netflix, among others.

She has paid tribute to her 60 Minutes colleagues in special reports on Mike Wallace, Morley Safer and Bob Simon. She interviewed Steve Kroft on his retirement in 2019.

Prior to joining 60 Minutes, Stahl served as CBS News White House correspondent – the first woman to hold that job – 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.