Steve Kroft was named a correspondent of “60 Minutes” in May 1989 and delivered his first report that fall. The 2007-2009 season is his 19th on the broadcast and his 28th year as a CBS News correspondent. Two of Kroft’s most significant reports have been about Chernobyl. Kroft returned to Chernobyl in 1994 and became the first American reporter to actually enter the crippled reactor building.
Kroft’s “60 Minutes” report on the eco-terrorist group the Earth Liberation Front was among the first to focus national attention on the secretive group that has destroyed millions of dollars in property across the U.S. in efforts to punish those they feel harm the environment. He also got the first television interview with Jonathan Lebed, a teen stock manipulator who was the youngest person ever sued by the SEC.
Kroft is a recipient of three George Foster Peabody Awards and of eleven Emmy awards, including a Lifetime Achievement Emmy for his body of work. His “60 Minutes” piece on the Immigration and Naturalization Service, entitled “I.N.S.” was cited as one of the reports for which CBS News won the 2003 Overall Excellence Award from the Radio/Television News Directors Association.
Kroft was honored with the prestigious Renner Award for reporting on organized crime for his story “The Worst Nightmare,” which was the first to document the involvement of the Russian mafia in the smuggling of nuclear materials out of the former Soviet Union. His exclusive interview with then Gov. Bill Clinton and his wife, Hillary, was reported on the front page of virtually every newspaper in the country, and continues to be cited as a defining moment of that presidential election.
At the podium Steve Kroft gives audiences a “no-holds-barred” exploration of his experiences around the globe and the insight he’s gained while meeting some of the world’s most influential people. From surviving a plane crash to covering wars in five continents, Kroft’s experience as a reporter will leave a thought-provoking and profound impact. He also offers an inside look at how news is reported and the affects it has on today’s society.
At A Glance: Kroft was born August 22, 1945, in Kokomo, Indiana. He was graduated from Syracuse University in 1967 with a bachelor of science degree, and was honored by that institution in 1992 with the George Arents Medal, the highest honor the university gives to an alumnus. Kroft earned a master’s degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and received an honorary doctorate of humane letters from Indiana University. He served with the United States Army in Vietnam as a correspondent and photographer for Pacific Stars and Stripes.
Before joining “60 Minutes,” Kroft was a principal correspondent on the CBS News magazine West 57th. Before that, he was a foreign correspondent for CBS News based in the London bureau, a period during which he covered international terrorism in Europe and the Middle East, including the TWA hijacking in Beirut, the massacres at the Rome and Vienna airports by the Abu Nidal terrorist cell, and the Achille Lauro hijacking. He has also covered the war in Beirut and the sectarian violence in Northern Ireland. His report on the assassination of Indira Gandhi for the CBS Evening News won an Emmy Award.
Prior to his assignment in London, Kroft was a correspondent in the CBS News Miami bureau and traveled extensively in Latin America and the Caribbean. During that time, he covered the civil war in El Salvador and the U.S. invasion of Grenada. Kroft joined CBS News in January 1980 as a reporter in the Northeast bureau in New York. He was named a correspondent in May 1981 and worked out of the Dallas bureau until May 1983.
Kroft is married to journalist Jennet Conant. They live in New York with their son, John Conant Kroft.
