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Lesley
Stahl
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FROM
WATERATE TO ABU GHRAIB PRISON SCANDAL, CBS' LESLEY STAHL HAS SEEN
IT ALL
Gunter Theater, Peace Center
May 17, 2004 at 7:30 pm
During
a 33-year career as a White House and foreign correspondent, Lesley
Stahl has been an eyewitness to history. From her first assignment
of what seemed then to be an "insignificant" break-in
at the Watergate Hotel to interviewing Iraqi scientists after 9-11
on the existence of weapons of mass destruction, Stahl has been
one of the premier women journalists in her field.
As she told a crowd of Furman faculty, students and Greenville community
members Monday night, May 17, 2004, television and the pictures
and information it conveys to citizens has the power not only to
inform the public, but to shape and change its opinions.
Stahl is currently co-editor and correspondent for CBS News' "60
Minutes" as well as anchor of "48 Hours Investigates."
Prior to joining “60 Minutes,” Stahl was CBS News White
House correspondent during the Carter and Reagan administrations
and part of the term of George H.W. Bush. Her reports appeared frequently
on the “CBS Evening News,” both with Walter Cronkite
and Dan Rather, and on other CBS News broadcasts.
She
also served as moderator of CBS’ “Face The Nation”
during much of that time, where she interviewed such newsmakers
as Margaret Thatcher, Boris Yeltsin, Yasir Arafat and virtually
every top U.S. official, including George Bush and Dan Quayle.
She
has been awarded numerous Emmy Awards for her interviews on "Face
the Nation" and was recently honored with a Lifetime Achievement
Emmy. Her lecture on "Television and Politics in America"
at the Peace Center's Gunter Theater was part of the Richard W.
Riley Institute of Government, Politics and Public Leadership's
"Women and Politics" series.
In a 90-minute talk Stahl recounted some of her most memorable assignments
and injected her own commentary on the media's role in pressing
current issues such as the upcoming presidential election and the
shocking photos of prisoner abuse in Abu Ghraib in Iraq.
During her years as a White House correspondent, Stahl said she
became a "student of presidential leadership" and began
to examine the different ways presidents and presidential-hopefuls
used the media to portray a formidable image to the public.
President Ronald Reagan, she said, used his Hollywood charisma to
woo the public while President Bill Clinton struggled to stage a
happy family in the midst of the Lewinsky scandal. With the ever-present
"eyes" of the media watching, every move Washington makes
is broadcast again and again over millions of television sets. However,
these "eyes" can sometimes discern less of the truth than
you think, Stahl said.
Stahl recalled one of her most famous stories for "60 Minutes"
-- an expose on the 1984 Reagan re-election campaign that aired
the night before the election. In a blitz of images showing a benevolent
Reagan appearing at nursing home openings and hospitals, Stahl narrated
that Reagan had, in fact, cut the budget for such projects. Stahl
feared the backlash of the White House the next day; instead, phone
calls of praise began to pour in from Reagan's administration thanking
her for the "positive" newscast and free advertising the
night before. Stahl was befuddled. Her broadcast was obviously meant
to question Reagan's budget cuts. It was then that she was told
a stark reality that the news media had not been aware of before:
"No one heard what you had to say in that piece," Reagan's
staffer told her. "They just saw the pictures."
It was then that Stahl realized the pure power of pictures. "Pictures
drowned out my words," she said. "Pictures are emotional
and passionate and are capable of influencing viewers much more
than mere words. We form judgments about what we see, and our leaders
are aware of this. Visual images are much more powerful and remain
with us longer."
Stahl came aboard CBS news in 1972 -- the same year affirmative
action was enacted. While women may have made great strides in the
past thirty years, Stahl was quick to emphasize that American women
-- whether journalists or politicians -- had a long way yet to go.
"Other countries have had female heads of state and prominent
leaders. In America we have not seen one emerge, possibly because
we are all individualists. We must continue striving for more women
to become active on the political scene."
As a pioneer in her field, Stahl's career hasn't been the easiest
of rides. She had to defy stereotypes in a male-dominated industry
and prove she had the charisma and tenacity to succeed. But looking
back on her career and seeing all she has accomplished, Stahl truly
believes she has played a pivotal role in shaping American culture.
"I wake up everyday and I love my job. How can you not, when
something new and exciting happens every day?"
For a complete
bio of Stahl, visit the CBS News website at
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/1998/07/09/60minutes/main13546.shtml.
For more photos,
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