Steve Kroft biography

Then in 1980, Kroft landed his first job at a major American television network, working for the northeast news bureau at CBS in New York. After only a year with CBS, Kroft was named a correspondent and moved to the Dallas bureau, where he worked for two years. Three years later, Kroft won a promotion as foreign correspondent for the network's London bureau. There he immediately rose to prominence within the journalism world,

winning an Emmy Award for his coverage of the 1984 assassination of Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Other prominent news stories Kroft covered during this period include the 1985 hijacking of TWA Flight 847 in Beirut; the Lebanese Civil War; and the sectarian violence between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland. In 1987, Kroft shifted roles once again to work alongside Meredith Vieira on the newsmagazine series West 57th.

60 Minutes

In 1989, after two years on West 57th, Kroft landed the dream job he still holds: correspondent on the popular CBS News show 60 Minutes. As a 60 Minutes mainstay for over 20 years, Kroft has investigated and chronicled some of the most important events of recent history, and conducted revealing and in-depth interviews with numerous world leaders. In 1990, Kroft became the first American journalist granted significant access to the contaminated Chernobyl nuclear power complex in Ukraine. Two years later, he conducted an exclusive interview with then-governor and presidential candidate Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary; the interview is now regarded as one the defining moments of the 1992 presidential election.

Kroft's shocking 1996 report, "The Worst Nightmare," was the first to chronicle the smuggling of nuclear materials out of the former Soviet Union by the Russian mafia. Other iconic Kroft stories include a 1992 investigation of "friendly fire" in the Gulf War, a 1994 story about the Cuban government's quarantining of people with the AIDS virus, and a 1998 profile of Moscow's mayor Yuri Luzhkov. In 2008, Kroft conducted the first post-election interview with President-Elect Barack Obama and his wife Michelle.

Legacy

Over the past several decades, Steve Kroft has emerged as one of the most prominent TV journalists of our time. His work has won five Peabody Awards, two duPont Awards, 10 Emmy Awards (including the Lifetime Achievement Emmy) and the 2010 Paul White Award, one of the most prestigious media honors.

Over more than 40 years as a journalist, Steve Kroft has witnessed profound changes in the journalism industry, as electronic media has gradually replaced print as the primary means of communicating information. In recent years, Kroft has turned to addressing these changes, what he calls "the challenges journalism faces in this very difficult economic climate, and what changing technologies mean for the future of our profession." Asked in a recent interview how he feels about the future of his ever-changing industry, Kroft answered, "Generally, optimistic.