Steve Kroft

Stephen F. Kroft Kroft attended Syracuse University, where he earned his bachelor's degree from the S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications in 1967. He also worked at The Daily Orange and radio station WAER.

After his graduation, he was drafted into the United States Army and served in the Vietnam War. 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 for Meritorious Achievement. When the division was redeployed, he was reassigned to the military newspaper Stars and Stripes as a correspondent and photographer. 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 and established his reputation. In 1977 he moved to WPLG-TV in Miami, where his work came to the attention of CBS News.

CBS career Kroft joined CBS News in 1980 as a reporter in its 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 the CBS London bureau, where he traveled 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 Gandhi 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. He stayed in that position until the program was cancelled in the spring of 1989.

That September, Kroft and Meredith Vieira, a West 57th colleague, joined 60 Minutes.

Kroft asked Clint Eastwood how many children he has while interviewing the highly secretive actor in 1997. When Eastwood responded "I have a few," Kroft broached the subject with a declarative question: "Seven kids with five women, right?"—actually a conservative estimate, but at the time an unprecedented statement. Eastwood did not answer and stared at Kroft in silence for 30 seconds.

In May 2019, The Hollywood Reporter disclosed Kroft would retire from 60 Minutes on May 19, 2019, his 30th season on the show.

Presidential interviews Kroft has been corrected by Gallup.com on public opinion he cited while interviewing U.S. President Barack Obama on December 13, 2009. He stated in the interview that "Most Americans right now don't believe this war's worth fighting". He then questioned President Obama, about why he was conducting the war without public support. Gallup Editor in Chief Frank Newport challenged his statement and presented data, that indicated that Americans were split on the War in Afghanistan.

In March 2009, Kroft asked Obama, who was laughing while discussing the recession, "Are you punch drunk?"

Regarding the interview of Obama and Hillary Clinton on January 27, 2013, Conor Friedersdorf of The Atlantic argues that Steve Kroft's softball interview technique diminishes 60 Minutes. Peggy Noonan, in a column titled "So God Made a Fawner" in The Wall Street Journal, says that Kroft's interview was as "soft as a sneaker full of puppy excrement."

Personal life Kroft lives in New York City with his wife, Jennet Conant, who is a journalist and author. They have one son, John Conant Kroft.

Popular culture He appeared as himself on an episode of Murphy Brown. 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.

Awards 11-time Emmy Award winner including a Lifetime Achievement Emmy in 2003 2009: List of George Polk Award Winners 2009: Gerald Loeb Award for Television Breaking News business journalism for "Economic Crisis: House of Cards" 2010: Paul White Award, Radio Television Digital News Association 2014: Gerald Loeb Award for Personal Finance business journalism for "60 Minutes: 40 Million Mistakes"