Leslie Cockburn
Encyclopedia
Leslie Corkill Redlich Cockburn ( co-burn; born September 2, 1952) is an American
writer
and filmmaker who has covered a wide variety of international stories in almost every part of the globe.
and raised in San Francisco, the daughter of Jeanne Louise (née Fulcher) and Christopher Rudolph Redlich. She was a member of the second class of women to graduate from Yale
. Afterwards, she went on to earn a master’s degree from the School of Oriental and African Studies
, London University
. While living in London
she began to work for NBC News
in their London bureau. Among her early reports was an interview with Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi
.
In 1978 Cockburn moved to CBS
. As a New York-based producer for the network in the 1980s she covered, among other topics, the U.S.-directed Contra
War against Nicaragua. Her 1984 report, “The Dirty War,” for which she traveled through regions of Nicaragua
that were officially off-limits as being too dangerous for journalists to visit, revealed the Contras' horrifying record of routine atrocities against the civilian population. In subsequent reports she laid out the degree to which Contras were heavily involved in the narcotics business as well as the first full account of the role of White House aide Colonel Oliver North
in directing the whole Contra war.
Following the overthrow of the Duvalier
regime in Haiti
in 1986, Cockburn’s report “Haiti’s Nightmare” (1987) on the brutality of a Haitian military unit being armed and trained by the U.S. led to an outcry in Congress and the suspension of all U.S. military aid to Haiti.
Other stories covered by Cockburn in this period included Pentagon military procurement scandals and the political history of then-Senator Jesse Helms
in North Carolina. Shortly afterwards, Helms launched a campaign for his right-wing followers to buy the network.
. In Guns, Drugs, and the CIA, (1987) she interviewed, on camera, Tony Po, aka Anthony Posephne, a legendary covert operations officer who had supervised the CIA’s secret war in Northern Laos during the 1960s and early 1970s. In the interview, Po stated that the CIA had supplied air transport for the heroin shipments of their local ally, General Vang Pao, the only such on-the-record confirmation by a former CIA officer concerning agency involvement in the narcotics trade.
In 1990 Cockburn produced and directed “From the Killing Fields” for the ABC News documentary show Peter Jennings
Reports. The film alleged that the U.S. had long been covertly supporting the Khmer Rouge
, the genocidal movement responsible for the deaths of millions in Cambodia
in the 1970s who had been displaced by a Vietnamese-back regime in 1979. U.S. assistance to the murderous group, Cockburn alleged, had been ongoing throughout the 1980s. The Bush Administration subsequently terminated covert aid to anti-Vietnamese forces, a move that led to the eventual UN-supervised peace settlement in Cambodia.
During the Gulf War
in 1991, Cockburn reported from Israel on the Iraqi Scud attacks against Tel Aviv. Her film, shot from a high-rise building close to the impact zone, provided irrefutable evidence that contrary to official reports, the U.S.-supplied Patriot missiles were not only entirely failing to intercept the Scuds but were instead impacting on the city itself. Her 1991 PBS Frontline documentary The War We Left Behind, produced with her husband Andrew Cockburn
, exposed the disastrous impact of economic sanctions on ordinary Iraqis and helped persuade the Vatican take a stand against the sanctions policy.
In 1997, Cockburn conceived and co-produced The Peacemaker
, starring George Clooney
and Nicole Kidman
, a thriller positing a terrorist attack on New York City
with a stolen nuclear weapon. In a 60 Minutes
report produced the same year, the former Russian National Security Adviser, General Alexander Lebed, admitted that several “nuclear suitcases” in the Russian inventory had gone missing.
In 1998, Cockburn served as Ferris Professor of Journalism at Princeton University
.
After teaching for a semester, Cockburn returned to full-time journalism, producing a number of pieces for 60 Minutes
. In 2000, she produced "America's Worst Nightmare," a 60 Minutes report on political instability in nuclear-armed Pakistan and the growing power in the country of fundamentalist groups linked to the Taliban, a piece that was recognized as "strikingly prophetic" in receiving the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award in 2001. In 2002 she did a report on the true effects of U. S. anti-narcotics aerial spraying on the civilian population of Colombia.
documentary for theatrical release. American Casino
relates the story of the origins, progress and consequences of the subprime mortgage disaster that led to the greatest financial crisis since the Great Depression
. Beginning filming in January 2008, Cockburn laid bare both the financial machinations and miscalculations on Wall Street that produced the disaster as well as its effects on an array of Baltimore homeowners struggling to stay afloat. The film premiered at New York's Tribeca Film Festival
in April 2009.
Variety
described it as a " searing expose of the subprime mortgage crisis (matching) Wall Street's numbers and graphics to the flesh-and-blood individuals whose lives have been devastated by the deliberate machinations of bankers and traders."
Slant
magazine called it a "revelatory howl against the still-gestating, $8 trillion-and-counting financial-services industry bailout."
Nobel Prize
-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz said
“American Casino is a powerful and shocking look at the subprime lending scandal. If you want to understand how the US financial system failed and how mortgage companies ripped off the poor, see this film.”
In its review of the film, The New York Times
noted that it "does not leave you assured the worst is over.... The lesson of this story: If enough money is involved, greed trumps morality."
in 1983, the George Polk in 1990, and 2009 Columbia Dupont
in 2002, Overseas Press Club
, and 1991 Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award
.
with her husband, Andrew Cockburn
, a journalist and film producer with whom she has co-authored several books. Together they have three children, Chloe Frances Cockburn, film actress Olivia Wilde
, and Charles Philip Cockburn.
Cockburn has two brothers-in-law, Alexander Cockburn
and Patrick Cockburn
, who are also journalists, and the mystery writer Sarah Caudwell
was her half-sister in law. Her son-in-law was filmmaker Tao Ruspoli
, and journalists Laura Flanders
and Stephanie Flanders
are her half-nieces by marriage, daughters of her half-brother in law Michael Flanders
. Her father-in-law was Claud Cockburn
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
and filmmaker who has covered a wide variety of international stories in almost every part of the globe.
Early life and career
Cockburn was born Leslie Corkill Redlich in San Mateo, CaliforniaSan Mateo, California
San Mateo is a city in San Mateo County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area. With a population of approximately 100,000 , it is one of the larger suburbs on the San Francisco Peninsula, located between Burlingame to the north, Foster City to the east, Belmont to the south,...
and raised in San Francisco, the daughter of Jeanne Louise (née Fulcher) and Christopher Rudolph Redlich. She was a member of the second class of women to graduate from Yale
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
. Afterwards, she went on to earn a master’s degree from the School of Oriental and African Studies
School of Oriental and African Studies
The School of Oriental and African Studies is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and a constituent college of the University of London...
, London University
University of London
-20th century:Shortly after 6 Burlington Gardens was vacated, the University went through a period of rapid expansion. Bedford College, Royal Holloway and the London School of Economics all joined in 1900, Regent's Park College, which had affiliated in 1841 became an official divinity school of the...
. While living in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
she began to work for NBC News
NBC News
NBC News is the news division of American television network NBC. It first started broadcasting in February 21, 1940. NBC Nightly News has aired from Studio 3B, located on floors 3 of the NBC Studios is the headquarters of the GE Building forms the centerpiece of 30th Rockefeller Center it is...
in their London bureau. Among her early reports was an interview with Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi
Muammar al-Gaddafi
Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar Gaddafi or "September 1942" 20 October 2011), commonly known as Muammar Gaddafi or Colonel Gaddafi, was the official ruler of the Libyan Arab Republic from 1969 to 1977 and then the "Brother Leader" of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya from 1977 to 2011.He seized power in a...
.
In 1978 Cockburn moved to CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
. As a New York-based producer for the network in the 1980s she covered, among other topics, the U.S.-directed Contra
Contras
The contras is a label given to the various rebel groups opposing Nicaragua's FSLN Sandinista Junta of National Reconstruction government following the July 1979 overthrow of Anastasio Somoza Debayle's dictatorship...
War against Nicaragua. Her 1984 report, “The Dirty War,” for which she traveled through regions of Nicaragua
Nicaragua
Nicaragua is the largest country in the Central American American isthmus, bordered by Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. The country is situated between 11 and 14 degrees north of the Equator in the Northern Hemisphere, which places it entirely within the tropics. The Pacific Ocean...
that were officially off-limits as being too dangerous for journalists to visit, revealed the Contras' horrifying record of routine atrocities against the civilian population. In subsequent reports she laid out the degree to which Contras were heavily involved in the narcotics business as well as the first full account of the role of White House aide Colonel Oliver North
Oliver North
Oliver Laurence North is a retired U.S. Marine Corps officer, political commentator, host of War Stories with Oliver North on Fox News Channel, a military historian, and a New York Times best-selling author....
in directing the whole Contra war.
Following the overthrow of the Duvalier
François Duvalier
François Duvalier was the President of Haiti from 1957 until his death in 1971. Duvalier first won acclaim in fighting diseases, earning him the nickname "Papa Doc" . He opposed a military coup d'état in 1950, and was elected President in 1957 on a populist and black nationalist platform...
regime in Haiti
Haiti
Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...
in 1986, Cockburn’s report “Haiti’s Nightmare” (1987) on the brutality of a Haitian military unit being armed and trained by the U.S. led to an outcry in Congress and the suspension of all U.S. military aid to Haiti.
Other stories covered by Cockburn in this period included Pentagon military procurement scandals and the political history of then-Senator Jesse Helms
Jesse Helms
Jesse Alexander Helms, Jr. was a five-term Republican United States Senator from North Carolina who served as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from 1995 to 2001...
in North Carolina. Shortly afterwards, Helms launched a campaign for his right-wing followers to buy the network.
Documentary Films
In 1987 Cockburn began producing and reporting documentaries for PBS Frontline in collaboration with her husband Andrew CockburnAndrew Cockburn
Andrew Cockburn is a journalist who has lived in the United States for many years.-Early life and family:Born in London in 1947, Cockburn grew up in County Cork, Ireland. His father was socialist author and journalist Claud Cockburn...
. In Guns, Drugs, and the CIA, (1987) she interviewed, on camera, Tony Po, aka Anthony Posephne, a legendary covert operations officer who had supervised the CIA’s secret war in Northern Laos during the 1960s and early 1970s. In the interview, Po stated that the CIA had supplied air transport for the heroin shipments of their local ally, General Vang Pao, the only such on-the-record confirmation by a former CIA officer concerning agency involvement in the narcotics trade.
In 1990 Cockburn produced and directed “From the Killing Fields” for the ABC News documentary show Peter Jennings
Peter Jennings
Peter Charles Archibald Ewart Jennings, CM was a Canadian American journalist and news anchor. He was the sole anchor of ABC's World News Tonight from 1983 until his death in 2005 of complications from lung cancer...
Reports. The film alleged that the U.S. had long been covertly supporting the Khmer Rouge
Khmer Rouge
The Khmer Rouge literally translated as Red Cambodians was the name given to the followers of the Communist Party of Kampuchea, who were the ruling party in Cambodia from 1975 to 1979, led by Pol Pot, Nuon Chea, Ieng Sary, Son Sen and Khieu Samphan...
, the genocidal movement responsible for the deaths of millions in Cambodia
Cambodia
Cambodia , officially known as the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia...
in the 1970s who had been displaced by a Vietnamese-back regime in 1979. U.S. assistance to the murderous group, Cockburn alleged, had been ongoing throughout the 1980s. The Bush Administration subsequently terminated covert aid to anti-Vietnamese forces, a move that led to the eventual UN-supervised peace settlement in Cambodia.
During the Gulf War
Gulf War
The Persian Gulf War , commonly referred to as simply the Gulf War, was a war waged by a U.N.-authorized coalition force from 34 nations led by the United States, against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait.The war is also known under other names, such as the First Gulf...
in 1991, Cockburn reported from Israel on the Iraqi Scud attacks against Tel Aviv. Her film, shot from a high-rise building close to the impact zone, provided irrefutable evidence that contrary to official reports, the U.S.-supplied Patriot missiles were not only entirely failing to intercept the Scuds but were instead impacting on the city itself. Her 1991 PBS Frontline documentary The War We Left Behind, produced with her husband Andrew Cockburn
Andrew Cockburn
Andrew Cockburn is a journalist who has lived in the United States for many years.-Early life and family:Born in London in 1947, Cockburn grew up in County Cork, Ireland. His father was socialist author and journalist Claud Cockburn...
, exposed the disastrous impact of economic sanctions on ordinary Iraqis and helped persuade the Vatican take a stand against the sanctions policy.
In 1997, Cockburn conceived and co-produced The Peacemaker
The Peacemaker (1997 film)
The Peacemaker is a 1997 American action/thriller film starring George Clooney and Nicole Kidman and directed by Mimi Leder. It is also notable as being the first film released by DreamWorks...
, starring George Clooney
George Clooney
George Timothy Clooney is an American actor, film director, producer, and screenwriter. For his work as an actor, he has received two Golden Globe Awards and an Academy Award...
and Nicole Kidman
Nicole Kidman
Nicole Mary Kidman, AC is an American-born Australian actress, singer, film producer, spokesmodel, and humanitarian. After starring in a number of small Australian films and TV shows, Kidman's breakthrough was in the 1989 thriller Dead Calm...
, a thriller positing a terrorist attack on New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
with a stolen nuclear weapon. In a 60 Minutes
60 Minutes
60 Minutes is an American television news magazine, which has run on CBS since 1968. The program was created by producer Don Hewitt who set it apart by using a unique style of reporter-centered investigation....
report produced the same year, the former Russian National Security Adviser, General Alexander Lebed, admitted that several “nuclear suitcases” in the Russian inventory had gone missing.
In 1998, Cockburn served as Ferris Professor of Journalism at Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
.
After teaching for a semester, Cockburn returned to full-time journalism, producing a number of pieces for 60 Minutes
60 Minutes
60 Minutes is an American television news magazine, which has run on CBS since 1968. The program was created by producer Don Hewitt who set it apart by using a unique style of reporter-centered investigation....
. In 2000, she produced "America's Worst Nightmare," a 60 Minutes report on political instability in nuclear-armed Pakistan and the growing power in the country of fundamentalist groups linked to the Taliban, a piece that was recognized as "strikingly prophetic" in receiving the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award in 2001. In 2002 she did a report on the true effects of U. S. anti-narcotics aerial spraying on the civilian population of Colombia.
American Casino
In 2009, Leslie Cockburn directed and co-produced (with husband Andrew Cockburn) her first featureFeature film
In the film industry, a feature film is a film production made for initial distribution in theaters and being the main attraction of the screening, rather than a short film screened before it; a full length movie...
documentary for theatrical release. American Casino
American Casino (documentary film)
American Casino is a 2009 documentary film about the American subprime mortgage crisis. It is directed and produced by Leslie Cockburn with Andrew Cockburn as co-producer....
relates the story of the origins, progress and consequences of the subprime mortgage disaster that led to the greatest financial crisis since the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
. Beginning filming in January 2008, Cockburn laid bare both the financial machinations and miscalculations on Wall Street that produced the disaster as well as its effects on an array of Baltimore homeowners struggling to stay afloat. The film premiered at New York's Tribeca Film Festival
Tribeca Film Festival
The Tribeca Film Festival is a film festival founded in 2002 by Jane Rosenthal, Robert De Niro and Craig Hatkoff in a response to the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the consequent loss of vitality in the TriBeCa neighborhood in Lower Manhattan.The mission of the festival...
in April 2009.
Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
described it as a " searing expose of the subprime mortgage crisis (matching) Wall Street's numbers and graphics to the flesh-and-blood individuals whose lives have been devastated by the deliberate machinations of bankers and traders."
Slant
Slant Magazine
Slant Magazine is an online publication that features reviews of movies, music, TV, DVDs, theater, and video games, as well as interviews with actors, directors, and musicians. The site covers various film festivals like the New York Film Festival.- History :...
magazine called it a "revelatory howl against the still-gestating, $8 trillion-and-counting financial-services industry bailout."
Nobel Prize
Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...
-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz said
“American Casino is a powerful and shocking look at the subprime lending scandal. If you want to understand how the US financial system failed and how mortgage companies ripped off the poor, see this film.”
In its review of the film, The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
noted that it "does not leave you assured the worst is over.... The lesson of this story: If enough money is involved, greed trumps morality."
Awards
In the course of her career, Cockburn has won numerous awards including The Hillman PrizeThe Hillman Prize
The Hillman Prize is a journalism award given out annually by the Sidney Hillman Foundation, named for the noted American labor leader. It is given to "journalists, writers and public figures who pursue social justice and public policy for the common good." Murray Kempton was the first recipient,...
in 1983, the George Polk in 1990, and 2009 Columbia Dupont
DuPont-Columbia Award
The Alfred I. duPont–Columbia University Award is an American award that honors excellence in broadcast journalism. The awards, administered since 1968 by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in New York City, are considered a broadcast equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize, another...
in 2002, Overseas Press Club
Overseas Press Club
The Overseas Press Club of America was founded in 1939 in New York City by a group of foreign correspondents. The wire service reporter Carol Weld was a founding member...
, and 1991 Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award
Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award
The Robert F. Kennedy Awards for Excellence in Journalism is journalisms award named after Robert F. Kennedy and awarded by the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights. The annual awards are issued in several categories and were established in December 1968 by a group of reporters who...
.
Personal life
She lives in Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
with her husband, Andrew Cockburn
Andrew Cockburn
Andrew Cockburn is a journalist who has lived in the United States for many years.-Early life and family:Born in London in 1947, Cockburn grew up in County Cork, Ireland. His father was socialist author and journalist Claud Cockburn...
, a journalist and film producer with whom she has co-authored several books. Together they have three children, Chloe Frances Cockburn, film actress Olivia Wilde
Olivia Wilde
Olivia Wilde is an American actress and fashion model. She began acting in the early 2000s, and has since appeared in a number of film and television parts, including roles in the serial-drama The O.C. and The Black Donnellys. She portrayed Dr...
, and Charles Philip Cockburn.
Cockburn has two brothers-in-law, Alexander Cockburn
Alexander Cockburn
Alexander Claud Cockburn is an American political journalist. Cockburn was brought up in Ireland but has lived and worked in the United States since 1972. Together with Jeffrey St. Clair, he edits the political newsletter CounterPunch...
and Patrick Cockburn
Patrick Cockburn
Patrick Cockburn is an Irish journalist who has been a Middle East correspondent since 1979 for the Financial Times and, presently, The Independent....
, who are also journalists, and the mystery writer Sarah Caudwell
Sarah Caudwell
Sarah Caudwell was the pseudonym of Sarah Cockburn , a British barrister and writer of detective stories.She is best known for a series of four murder stories written between 1980 and 1999, centred around the lives of a group of young barristers practicing in Lincoln’s Inn and narrated by a Hilary...
was her half-sister in law. Her son-in-law was filmmaker Tao Ruspoli
Tao Ruspoli
Tao Ruspoli is an Italian American filmmaker and musician.-Background:Ruspoli is the second son of occasional actor and aristocrat Prince Alessandro Ruspoli, 9th Prince of Cerveteri and Austrian-American actress Debra Berger. He is the older brother of Bartolomeo dei Principi Ruspoli , second...
, and journalists Laura Flanders
Laura Flanders
Laura Flanders is a British-American journalist who presents the current events show GRITtv, broadcast weekdays on Link and Free Speech TV....
and Stephanie Flanders
Stephanie Flanders
Stephanie Hope Flanders, born 5 August 1968, is a British broadcast journalist, and is currently the BBC economics editor.She is the daughter of British actor and comic singer Michael Flanders and Claudia Cockburn.-Early life:...
are her half-nieces by marriage, daughters of her half-brother in law Michael Flanders
Michael Flanders
Michael Henry Flanders OBE, was an English actor, broadcaster, and writer and performer of comic songs. He is best known to the general public for his partnership with Donald Swann performing as the duo Flanders and Swann....
. Her father-in-law was Claud Cockburn
Claud Cockburn
Francis Claud Cockburn was a British journalist. He was well known proponent of communism. His saying, "believe nothing until it has been officially denied" is widely quoted in journalistic studies.He was the second cousin of novelist Evelyn Waugh....
.