A Massachusetts native who graduated cum laude from Wheaton College, Stahl managed to distinguish herself from the very beginning of her two decade-long career at CBS News. Able to ask tough questions and get the answers they demand, Stahl has remained one of the few "serious" women reporters who has achieved celebrity status and yet not let herself drift into the gray areas of entertainment journalism.
Stahl has reported on every U.S.-Soviet summit meeting since 1978, every economic summit since 1979 and every national political convention and election night since 1974. Prior to being named co-editor for "60 Minutes" in 1991, Stahl covered the administrations of three American presidents for CBS News as White House correspondent beginning in 1978. She also co-anchored the weekly CBS News late night broadcast "America Tonight" as well as moderated "Face the Nation with Leslie Stahl", CBS News' top rated weekly public affairs broadcast from 1983 to 1991. She interviewed such newsmakers as Margaret Thatcher, Daniel Ortega, Boris Yeltsin, Yasir Arafat and most top U.S. officials.
While friends and foes in the news business have sometimes described Stahl as "too aggressive"--she has been known to steal stories from competitors--Stahl has shrugged off the criticism as just her doggedness to achieve results. "I'm totally driven to get the story," she told COSMOPOLITAN magazine. "I'm compelled. I can't stop."