Reporting Live [Hardcover]

Lesley Stahl (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 13, 1999

When she first started out in network television, Lesley Stahl was 30 years old and the men she shared the newsroom with were already legendary. In the ensuing 25 years and counting, Stahl has covered every major story and has become one of the most highly regarded reporters in the country. In this celebrity-filled, anecdote-packed memoir, Lesley Stahl tells how she has kept her focus -- and her sense of humor -- through all of this success.

Just two months into her job in the CBS Washington Bureau, "a third-rate burglary" at the Watergate was deemed so unnewsworthy that the new girl, Stahl, was the only television reporter sent to cover the burglars' initial court appearances. Not only would she provide CBS with an early scoop in the story, she would meet, and become romantically linked to, another young reporter covering the case for The Washington Post, Bob Woodward.

While Stahl cut her teeth on Washington political reporting, cultivating sources and gradually building a reputation as a "scoopster," she learned to overcome the stigma of affirmative action. She went on to cover the next three presidents, witnessing the disintegration of the Jimmy Carter presidency, the rise and fall and rise again of Ronald Reagan's, and the unfocused regular-guyness of George Bush's. She offers sharp and nuanced portraits of these presidents and their wives as well as of many of her guests on Face the Nation, which she moderated for eight years. Stahl also describes the ups and downs of network television news as competition from cable began to siphon off the audience.

Stahl shares the struggle of forging her career while figuring out how to spend time with her husband, Aaron (Urban Cowboy) Latham, and their daughter, Taylor. Reporting Live is filled with heads of state; network moguls; competing journalists; her mother, Dolly; John Madden; John Travolta; John Dean -- everybody from George Bush to Boy George.

Lesley Stahl is one of the toughest, most glamorous, and most respected reporters in the business. She has written a funny, real, knowledgeable book that takes the reader inside the White House and inside the world of television news.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

No TV news blond has more steel than 60 Minutes' Lesley Stahl, whose Reporting Live is one impressively substantive celebrity memoir. As a rookie in the CBS Washington, D.C., bureau in 1972, she got an assignment too grubby and unpromising for the big reporters: Watergate. She didn't just date Bob Woodward, she vied with him for scoops. For a quarter century, workaholic Stahl saw more of presidents and fellow bulldog newshound Sam Donaldson than her own daughter and husband, Urban Cowboy writer Aaron Latham.

Stahl's book belongs on any political-history shelf. Besides a briskly readable account of epochal events witnessed up close, she offers canny insights into what broke Nixon, backs up Tom Shales's opinion of Carter as "a combination Mr. Rogers and John the Baptist," assesses Reagan's mysteriously fogbank-like mind, and paints a startlingly warm portrait of George Bush (though not Barbara). Not only can Stahl fire fierce questions at world leaders against hair-raising deadlines, she can analyze trends with cool detachment, sometimes busting her profession or herself as guilty parties. She laments the "moral McCarthyism" of our times and compares her profession to a pack of wild dogs she'd encountered on an African safari.

What did it mean to be a woman in a man's world? Menachem Begin sexually harassed her, but her experience with teenage girls proved useful in understanding Reagan's bitchy, backstabbing male staff. Stahl sketches her personal life (and Latham's near-fatal depression), but her stuff on media and politics is the real news here. --Tim Appelo

From Publishers Weekly

By the start of this gripping newswoman's autobiography, the needle has already dropped. On the cusp of turning 30 in the early 1970s, Stahl is broadcasting for Channel 5 in Boston and is stuck in a terrible relationship. The problem is solved when CBS News hires her as a cub reporter in its Washington Bureau. Stahl is in the thick of it by page 18, covering Watergate and building herself into a real "kick down the doors reporter" (though how she kicks down those doors while wearing high heels and a blonde bouffant is anyone's guess). In her personal life, she is mired in a love-hate relationship with her mother; she dates Bob Dole and Bob Woodward and eventually marries writer Aaron Latham. All the while she steadily moves up the ladder at CBS, even though the industry has yet to give women broadcast journalists equal treatment. Stahl relates history as it unfolds, allowing readers to judge whether Carter's natural gifts served him ill or well; whether Reagan was fully in charge of the country; and whether Bush really helped end the Cold War or tried to keep it alive by supporting communist strongmen. While Stahl offers both an unstinting behind-the-scenes look at the nation's one-time premier news organization and a wealth of personal anecdotes, she never quite explains what drives her to contend with the sexism, the network politics and the strain on her family life that the job demands. Still, she assesses herself as unflinchingly as the political figures she's covered (admitting, for instance, that she was too slow to attend, or react, to her husband's crippling depression). For better or worse, the Stahl readers meet in this fast-paced autobiography isn't too far from the one they see on TV. Perhaps that's what the reporter intended.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 448 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster; 1ST edition (January 13, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684829304
• ISBN-13: 978-0684829302
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,522,354 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Lively Lesley, July 12, 2001

By 

sweetmolly (RICHMOND, VA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Reporting Live (Paperback)

This memoir begins in the author's 30th year (1972) when she went to work for CBS as a White House correspondent. It ends in 1992 when she left Washington to move to New York City and "60 Minutes" fame.

Her story is well told with no whining and much humor. The political stories are many and deftly presented. She gives a primer on what it takes for a woman to be a top White House correspondent. It is not for the faint of heart. Think 12-hour days, constant traveling, stress to the max, keeping your adrenalin and aggressive instincts at a fever pitch at all times, and make sure you look glamorous no matter what.

At times, I felt Ms. Stahl was too hard on herself. She reiterates that her husband, child and family are perfect; she caused the only clouds on the horizon. She and her mother are very close, and there is no mistaking the senior Ms. Stahl is a formidable lady. Her husband had some career problems that deeply depressed him. With the unbelievable pressures of her job, it's hard to see how she could cope with a family life at all. She is a wonderful mix of utmost aggression and high femininity.

This is not a tell-all book. She admits to a rather staid romance with Bob Woodward and radiates a certain fondness for all the Commanders in Chief she served (with the exception of Richard Nixon). Her description of her interview with Margaret Thatcher is priceless. Let's just say Ms. Stahl did not come out victorious.

Ms. Stahl is careful to credit all her colleagues, though she gives the CBS brass quite a pounding. Her comments on her boss, Dan Rather, are always supportive, but it is easy to see Mr. Rather is a difficult man to work for.

The book is well written, as you would expect from a good journalist. It reads quickly and well. The author's cheerful compassion is hard to resist.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating look at the life and struggle of a modern woman, May 27, 1999

By 

Mary C. Martin (New Jersey, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Reporting Live (Hardcover)

I was really impressed with Stahl's book. She writes well, and with brutal honesty, about herself and about the people she came in contact with during her years as a reporter.

She doesn't gloss over the mistakes she has made or the problems she encountered. She looks at herself unflinchingly and tells you both the good and the bad. Many times autobiographies won't paint a complete picture of the person, but you get the idea that you really know who Stahl is. Yo also respect her for being willing to show her human side, and to share her mistakes. It helps us "regular people" to know that she is not perfect -- we can all relate to that.

In addition, Stahl brings politics to life by sharing some of the background stories, her experiences with famous world leaders, and her struggle with the sometimes overt/sometimes covert sex discrimination she encountered in her travels.

This book is well worth a read.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Exceptional Memoir!, May 6, 2002

By 

CTedder (Atlanta, GA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Reporting Live (Paperback)

What an interesting read! While most bios take you from birth through an unremarkable (and lengthy) adolescence, Stahl starts the book (and her life, by her own declaration) at age 30. Then - boom! - we're immediately thrust into Watergate (she was dating Bob Woodward at the time), where Stahl was the only TV newsperson covering the initial - and seemingly un-newsworthy - burglary.

From there, we're taken into each subsequent presidency - from Nixon to Bush Sr. - and shown how personnel, presidents, their staffs, and technology shaped TV news coverage of historical events.

The product of CBS news' affirmative action plan (along with Bernie Shaw and Connie Chung that year), Stahl was promoted in the early '70s to the Washington bureau. We are treated to an indepth account of her professional and personal triumphs. Of course, she occasionally goofed, which she comically relays, as well.

With each chapter titled for a president and first lady - Reagan gets two! - Stahl gives us the stories-behind-the-stories: correspondents outwitting each other for the scoop; Barbara Bush's surprisingly icy remarks and actions; Stahl's assessment of unsuccessful presidents; one White House staff that was hell-bent on getting rid of Dan Rather; the point when CNN emerged as the true news leader. That we get all this juicy, inside stuff is a testimony to the author. Only someone as busy as Stahl could supply it - she and her teased and hairsprayed "helmet" of a hairdo wore many hats: Chief White House Correspondent, Face the Nation host and America Tonight co-host during the Gulf War - at one point, all three at the same time!

If you wonder why George Bush's presidency is the last chapter of the book - how could she resist Clinton's escapades? - it is because her memoir is meant only to tell the story of her most well-known beat: the White House. Believe me, you get a lot! And after years of hard work at CBS in Washington, Stahl at long last - after years of waiting and, I think, unfairly having to audition - earned the 60 Minutes gig and relocated to New York.

If you enjoy books of a political nature, but told in an easy-to-understand manner, you'll find Stahl's respect and humility toward world news - and life - a pleasure to read. I highly recommend it.