'60 Minutes' Journalist Awarded Goldsmith

Leslie R. Stahl, co-editor of the CBS News program "60 Minutes," received the prestigious Goldsmith Award for Excellence in Journalism last night before a crowd of journalists, friends and admirers at the ARCO Forum.

In an anecdotal speech about her 30 year-career, Stahl, 58, accepted the award, which is to honor her lifetime achievement as an investigative journalist.

Moderator Marvin Kalb--director of the Shorenstein Center for the Press, Politics and Public Policy and a former colleague of Stahl's--introduced Stahl by telling a story from her years as a White House correspondent.

Stahl had written and anchored a report about the way in which President Ronald W. Reagan's advisers manipulated the press to present their boss's best face to the public, Kalb said.

Despite the story's content, Kalb said Reagan advisers loved it because it featured five minutes and 40 seconds--an eternity on an evening newscast--of the beaming president.

"Ever since then," Stahl said in her speech, "I've been fascinating by the power of pictures."

Stahl said in recent times, President Clinton and the first lady, Hillary Rodham Clinton, have effectively used visual images to their political advantage. The "game faces" of the duo helped them through the recent impeachment scandal, she said.

"They have both smiled their way through everything they've gone through," Stahl said. "Their faces say, 'Hey, we're not disgusted, we're not guilt-ridden, were not agonized, so why should you be?'"

The Clintons have used other images to boost their image, Stahl said.

"All of the sudden, the scandal's erupting, and we're seeing pictures of Chelsea," she said.

Stahl pointed to the acquisition of Clinton's dog, Buddy, as another way they helped promote a favorable impression.

"I mean, what picture says, 'What a great guy!' more than a guy and his drooling dog?" Stahl asked.

But holding up a copy of yesterday's New York Post, which had the headline "Chillary" emblazoned across the masthead, Stahl said the Clintons are not always able to keep up appearances.

The story reported that Hillary Clinton had not accompanied the president on his trip to Latin America this week because she was angry with him.

"Here, the New York Post has finally got the one time when their game faces weren't there," Stahl said.

Stahl closed her speech with a story about her early days at CBS News, where she said she was hired because of an affirmative action policy aimed at making gender ratios more equal.

During her first show as an analyst on a CBS News special about the Watergate hearings, the male analysts at first did not let her say a word, she said.

Stahl said she was suddenly asked a question about "the latest gossip" from then White House aide John Erlichmann.

When she didn't speak, Stahl said journalist Daniel Schorr responded.

"If it's gossip you want, that's why we have a woman here," Shorr said.

A graduate of Wheaton College in Norton, Mass., Stahl began her journalism career in 1968, when she worked as a writer-researcher for NBC News. She joined CBS in 1972 after a stint as a producer for then-CBS Boston affiliate WHDH-TV.

From 1979 to1986, Stahl served as a White House correspondent. She joined "60 Minutes" in 1991 after 12 years as a Washington-based reporter.

Most recently, her investigative reporting on the Gulf War has earned her and others at "60 Minutes" adulation from the journalism industry.

Stahl's compilation of her memoirs, Reporting Live, was published by Simon and Schuster last year.

CBS Evening News managing editor and anchor Dan Rather won the Goldsmith Award last year.

Last night's ceremony also honored the investigative journalism of a team of reporters from the Miami Herald.

Manny Garcia, Dan Keating, Joseph Tanfani and Andres Viglucci won a $25,000 prize for their work on the series, "Dirty Votes: The Race for Miami's Mayor," which revealed corruption in Miami's city administration.