Leslie Cockburn

Leslie Corkill Redlich Cockburn (/ˈkoʊbərn/ KOH-bərn; 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.

Early life and career

Leslie Cockburn (née Leslie Corkill Redlich) was born at Mills Hospital in San Mateo, San Mateo County, California, and raised in Hillsborough. She is the daughter of Christopher Rudolph Redlich, Stanford Class of 1938[1] (Tacoma, Pierce County, Washington, August 10, 1915 - December 15, 2000), buried at Newcastle Cemetery, Newcastle, Placer County, California.[2] Christopher was the Chairman of Marine Terminals Corp, who helped transform the shipping business and port operations worldwide with his advocacy of containerization. He advised countries including Saudi Arabia, Russia and China on how to develop modern ports. Redlich was the former president of the San Francisco Golf Club.[3][4][5] Her mother was Christopher's wife Jeanne Louise Fulcher (née Pigott), UCLA class of 1942, a 4th generation Californian[6] (Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, California or New York, March 18/19, 1921 - Hillsborough, San Mateo County, California, February 4, 2002),[7] who lived at Hillsborough, San Mateo County, California, buried at Newcastle Cemetery, Newcastle, Placer County, California.[4][8] Her ancestry includes German, Irish, English, and Manx.[4]

Leslie attended the Santa Catalina School for Girls '70 and won the distinguished alumni award on 2010 [9] 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 Gaddafi.[10]

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.[11] 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.[12]

Following the overthrow of the Duvalier regime in Haiti in 1986, Cockburn’s report “Haiti’s Nightmare” (1987)[13] 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.[14]

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.[15]

Documentary films

In 1987 Cockburn began producing and reporting documentaries for PBS Frontline in collaboration with her husband Andrew Cockburn. In Guns, Drugs, and the CIA,[16] (1987) she interviewed, on camera, Anthony Poshepny, aka "Tony Poe," 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, Poshepny 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.[17]

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.[18] The Bush Administration subsequently terminated covert aid to anti-Vietnamese forces, a move that led to the eventual UN-supervised peace settlement in Cambodia.[19]

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.[20] 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.[21]

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.[22] 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.[23]

In 1998, Cockburn served as Ferris Professor of Journalism at Princeton University.[24]

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,"[25] 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.[26][27] In 2002 she did a report on the true effects of U. S. anti-narcotics aerial spraying on the civilian population of Colombia.[28]

American Casino

In 2009, Leslie Cockburn directed and co-produced (with husband Andrew Cockburn) her first feature 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." [29]

Slant magazine called it a "revelatory howl against the still-gestating, $8 trillion-and-counting financial-services industry bailout."[30]

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.”[31]

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."[32]

Awards

In the course of her career, Cockburn has won numerous awards including The Hillman Prize in 1983, the George Polk in 1990, and 2009[33] Columbia Dupont in 2002,[34] Overseas Press Club, and 1991 Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award.[35]

Personal life

She lives in Washington, D.C. with her husband, Andrew Cockburn, a journalist and film producer with whom she has co-authored several books, whom she married in San Francisco in 1977.[36] Together they have three children, Chloe Frances Cockburn (April 3, 1979), film actress Olivia Wilde, and Charles Philip Cockburn (January 31, 1993).[37]

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 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 in-laws were Claud Cockburn and Jean Ross. On April 20, 2014 she became a grandmother when her daughter Olivia and fiance, Jason Sudeikis, had a baby boy, Otis Alexander.[38] Her other daughter, Chloe has 2 sons with her husband, artist Marc Scheff.

Bibliography

References

  1. ↑ Stanford Magazine May/June 01
  2. ↑ http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=geolarson3&id=I169067
  3. ↑ San Francisco Chronicle obituary 12/20/2000
  4. 1 2 3 http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~battle/celeb/wilde.htm
  5. ↑ (Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, California, December 19, 1942; Los Angeles Times, 23 Nov 1942: “…Mr. and Mrs. Albert Phillip Fulcher of North Hollywood announced the engagement of their daughter Jeanne Louise to Lieut. Christopher Rudolph Redlich, son of Mr. and Mrs. E. W. Horsman of Burlingame….Following their wedding on Dec. 19, the couple will make their home in San Francisco.” Same, 21 Dec 1942: “Church of the Precious Blood provided the setting for the wedding Saturday afternoon of Miss Jeanne Fulcher, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Albert Phil Fulcher of…North Hollywood, and Lieut. Christopher Rudolph Redlich of the Army….The bridegroom is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Ellett W. Horsman of Burlingame.”
  6. ↑ obituary, SF GATE Feb 9 2002
  7. ↑ http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=geolarson3&id=I169068
  8. ↑ Montague-Smith, Patrick W. (1980). Debrett's peerage and baronetage: with Her Majesty's Royal Warrant Holders 1980: comprises information concerning the Royal Family, the peerage, Privy Counsellors, Scottish Lords of Session, baronets, and chiefs of names and clans in Scotland. Debrett's Peerage. ISBN 0905649206.
  9. ↑ http://www.Santacatalina.org march 17 2010.)
  10. ↑ Looking For Trouble, One Woman, Six Wars, and a Revolution, memoir, by Leslie Cockburn
  11. ↑ Robert S. Leikin, Why Nicaragua Vanished: A Story of Reporters and Revolutionaries, Book, Rowman and Littlefield, 2003
  12. ↑ See, e.g., "John Hull's Farm", aired by West 57th
  13. ↑ This show aired on West 57th
  14. ↑ U.S. Seeks Wedge in Haiti, Tying New Aid to Elections, Article, New York Times, December 1, 1987, accessed December 24, 2007
  15. ↑ Helms Tells of His Role In the Bid to Buy CBS Article, New York Times, March 3, 1985
  16. ↑ Guns, Drugs, and the CIA full transcript PBS Frontline page
  17. ↑ See transcript from previous note
  18. ↑ Lewis, Anthony (May 4, 1990). "Abroad at Home; The Killing Fields". New York Times. Retrieved 2010-01-02.
  19. ↑ Cambodia - UNAMIC Background
  20. ↑ After the War; Did Patriot Missiles Work? Not So Well, Scientists Say Article, New York Times, April 17, 1991
  21. ↑ The War We Left Behind PBS Frontline page
  22. ↑ Loose Cannon Article, The Brookings Institution, Summer 1998, Accessed December 24, 2007
  23. ↑ Russian Officials Deny Claims of Missing Nuclear Weapons Article, Arms Control Today, September 1997. For a full transcript of the piece, see http://prop1.org/2000/cassini/971005fl.htm
  24. ↑ Princeton in the News Article, May 12, 1998>
  25. ↑ America's Worst Nightmare?, Article AP, October 15, 2000, accessed December 24, 2007. For a full transcript, see http://www.indianembassy.org/int_media/oct_2000/cbs_60_mins.htm.
  26. ↑ Carter, Bill. "Broadcasts On Terrorists Win Awards", The New York Times, December 19, 2001. Accessed December 28, 2007.
  27. ↑ 2002 duPont-Columbia Awards Recognize Reports on Political Turmoil Among Winners, Article, Columbia News, January 12, 2002, accessed December 24, 2007
  28. ↑ 60 Minutes: Herbicide Problems: Congressman Decries Spraying of Herbicide in Colombia Article, CBS, January 14, 2002
  29. ↑ Variety review of American Casino
  30. ↑ Slant review of American Casino
  31. ↑ American Casino official website
  32. ↑ Meltdown on Wall Street, and Homeowners Left in the Lurch on Main Street, Stephen Holden, The New York Times, September 2, 2009
  33. ↑ Jonnet Abeles George Polk Awards 1990-99
  34. ↑ "2002 duPont-Columbia Awards Recognize Reports on Political Turmoil Among Winners", Columbia News
  35. ↑ "23rd Annual Awards - 1991 (for 1990 coverage)", Robert F. Kennedy Memorial website
  36. ↑ Charles Mosley, editor, Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes (Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A.: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003), volume 1, page 120
  37. ↑ Charles Mosley, editor, Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes (Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A.: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003), volume 1, page 120.
  38. ↑ http://celebritybabies.people.com/2014/04/23/olivia-wilde-jason-sudeikis-welcome-son-otis-alexander/

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Thursday, March 31, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.