# Leslie Cockburn
**Leslie Cockburn** (born Leslie Corkill Redlich, 1952) is an American investigative journalist, documentary filmmaker, and author whose reporting on foreign affairs and national security has appeared on CBS, NBC, PBS's *Frontline*, and *60 Minutes*.[1](https://tv.apple.com/us/person/leslie-cockburn/umc.cpc.26tg5ou93wdf428kjaf2q3646) In 2018 she put her journalism career aside to run for the [United States House of Representatives](https://www.edgepedia.org/united-states-house-of-representatives) as the Democratic nominee in Virginia's 5th Congressional District, losing to Republican Denver Riggleman.[1](https://tv.apple.com/us/person/leslie-cockburn/umc.cpc.26tg5ou93wdf428kjaf2q3646)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Full name | Leslie Corkill Redlich Cockburn (née Redlich), born 1952[2](https://www.valeorine.com/reference/leslie-cockburn) |
| Principal outlets | CBS, NBC, PBS *Frontline*, and *60 Minutes*; director, producer, and correspondent on *Frontline*, producer on *60 Minutes*[1](https://tv.apple.com/us/person/leslie-cockburn/umc.cpc.26tg5ou93wdf428kjaf2q3646) • [3](https://festivalofwritingandideas.com/speakers/leslie-cockburn/) |
| Major awards | Two Emmy Awards, two George Polk Awards, two Alfred I. duPont–Columbia University Awards, the Robert F. Kennedy Award, the Hillman Prize, and the National Press Club Award for Diplomatic Correspondence[3](https://festivalofwritingandideas.com/speakers/leslie-cockburn/) • [4](https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/5217/leslie-cockburn/) |
| Books | *Out of Control* (1987), *One Point Safe*, *Dangerous Liaison*, the memoir *Looking for Trouble*, and the novel *Baghdad Solitaire* (2013)[4](https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/5217/leslie-cockburn/) • [5](https://spartacus-educational.com/JFKcockburnL.htm) • [6](https://www.sfgate.com/books/article/leslie-corkill-redlich-cockburn-explores-fiction-4892824.php) |
| 2018 campaign | Democratic nominee for Virginia's 5th Congressional District; lost to Denver Riggleman[1](https://tv.apple.com/us/person/leslie-cockburn/umc.cpc.26tg5ou93wdf428kjaf2q3646) |
| Education | BA, Yale University; MA in Oriental and African studies, SOAS, University of London; citizen of Ireland and the United States[3](https://festivalofwritingandideas.com/speakers/leslie-cockburn/) • [6](https://www.sfgate.com/books/article/leslie-corkill-redlich-cockburn-explores-fiction-4892824.php) |
| Family | Married to journalist Andrew Cockburn for more than 40 years; mother of Chloe Cockburn, Charlie Cockburn, and actress Olivia Wilde[7](https://wallstreetonparade.com/2018/05/america-has-reason-to-hope-leslie-cockburn-is-running-for-congress/) • [3](https://festivalofwritingandideas.com/speakers/leslie-cockburn/) |
## Early life and education
Cockburn grew up in Hillsborough, California, in what one profile described as a leafy, private-school upbringing, a career path away from the world of war reporting she would later enter.[6](https://www.sfgate.com/books/article/leslie-corkill-redlich-cockburn-explores-fiction-4892824.php) After graduating from Yale University she earned a master's degree in Oriental and African studies at the [University of London](https://www.edgepedia.org/university-of-london), and her first journalism job was with NBC.[6](https://www.sfgate.com/books/article/leslie-corkill-redlich-cockburn-explores-fiction-4892824.php) • [8](https://vademocrats.org/news/leslie-cockburn-former-investigative-journalist-running-protect-health-care-danville-register-bee/)
## Journalism career
**Television reporting.** Cockburn's investigative segments have aired on CBS, NBC, PBS *Frontline*, and *60 Minutes*.[1](https://tv.apple.com/us/person/leslie-cockburn/umc.cpc.26tg5ou93wdf428kjaf2q3646) On *Frontline* she worked as a director, producer, and correspondent for four years; on *60 Minutes* she was a producer, and she also produced and directed for CBS Reports and ABC News.[3](https://festivalofwritingandideas.com/speakers/leslie-cockburn/) • [9](https://www2.oberlin.edu/newserv/stories/cockburn_release.html) Her subject matter ranged across the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Cambodia, Somalia, and [Central America](https://www.edgepedia.org/central-america), the drug cartels in Colombia, the uprisings in Haiti, the Italian mafia, post-Soviet Russia, and radical Islamists in Pakistan and Yemen, along with the 2008 financial collapse and the manipulation of oil prices.[3](https://festivalofwritingandideas.com/speakers/leslie-cockburn/) • [7](https://wallstreetonparade.com/2018/05/america-has-reason-to-hope-leslie-cockburn-is-running-for-congress/)
**Access to difficult subjects.** Early in her career at NBC she landed a rare interview with Libyan leader Moammar Khadafy, and she was the only Western journalist to interview [Saddam Hussein](https://www.edgepedia.org/saddam-hussein)'s sons, Uday and Qusay.[6](https://www.sfgate.com/books/article/leslie-corkill-redlich-cockburn-explores-fiction-4892824.php) Steve Kroft, a longtime *60 Minutes* colleague, summarized her range: "She's done everything: She's written books, written scripts for movies," adding that she chased arms merchants and scored interviews with dictators and drug dealers.[10](https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/learning-to-do-a-double-flip-from-red-to-blue-and-from-reporter-to-politician/2018/09/23/3cfa5a6c-99b5-11e8-8d5e-c6c594024954_story.html)
**Nuclear security reporting.** Among the stories she produced for *60 Minutes* were "The Perfect Terrorist Weapon," built on General Alexander Lebed's revelations in *One Point Safe* that atomic demolition munitions, the so-called suitcase bombs, from the Russian arsenal might be unaccounted for, and "Zero Alert," which reported that Russia's strategic nuclear arsenal was on hair-trigger alert and more prone to accidents than during the Cold War.[9](https://www2.oberlin.edu/newserv/stories/cockburn_release.html) In 2000 she produced "America's Worst Nightmare," a *60 Minutes* report on political instability in Pakistan and fundamentalist groups linked to the Taliban, which received the Alfred I. duPont–Columbia University Award in 2001.[2](https://www.valeorine.com/reference/leslie-cockburn)
## Books and film
Cockburn is the author of *One Point Safe*, the true story of Russian nuclear security; *Dangerous Liaison: The Inside Story of the U.S.-Israeli Covert Relationship*; and the memoir *Looking for Trouble: One Woman, Six Wars and a Revolution*.[4](https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/5217/leslie-cockburn/) In 1987 she published *Out of Control*, the story of the secret war in [Nicaragua](https://www.edgepedia.org/nicaragua) and the Contra-Iran scandal, which won her a George Polk Award.[5](https://spartacus-educational.com/JFKcockburnL.htm) *One Point Safe*, co-authored with her husband [Andrew Cockburn](https://www.edgepedia.org/andrew-cockburn), inspired the motion picture *The Peacemaker*.[9](https://www2.oberlin.edu/newserv/stories/cockburn_release.html)
Her first novel, *Baghdad Solitaire* (2013), grew out of her reporting in Iraq across both Gulf wars and the period between them. She explained the turn to fiction by the constraints of the form: "When you do a piece of journalism, you may have to cut away 95 percent of what you are experiencing."[6](https://www.sfgate.com/books/article/leslie-corkill-redlich-cockburn-explores-fiction-4892824.php) She has also written for *Vanity Fair* as a contributing editor, for *The New Yorker* on radical [Islam in Saudi Arabia](https://www.edgepedia.org/islam-in-saudi-arabia), for *Granta* on the drug cartels, and for *British Vogue* on [Margaret Thatcher](https://www.edgepedia.org/margaret-thatcher) and [Hillary Clinton](https://www.edgepedia.org/hillary-clinton).[3](https://festivalofwritingandideas.com/speakers/leslie-cockburn/)
With her husband she made the documentary *American Casino*, about the [Wall Street](https://www.edgepedia.org/wall-street) crash of 2008, and the pair collaborated on four *Frontline* documentaries, including "The War We Left Behind" on Iraq after the [Gulf War](https://www.edgepedia.org/gulf-war).[7](https://wallstreetonparade.com/2018/05/america-has-reason-to-hope-leslie-cockburn-is-running-for-congress/) • [9](https://www2.oberlin.edu/newserv/stories/cockburn_release.html)
## Teaching and later work
In 1998 Cockburn was Ferris Professor of Journalism at Princeton University.[9](https://www2.oberlin.edu/newserv/stories/cockburn_release.html) She and Andrew Cockburn have lived on a farm in Rappahannock County, Virginia, since 1999.[7](https://wallstreetonparade.com/2018/05/america-has-reason-to-hope-leslie-cockburn-is-running-for-congress/) By 2018 she was writing a novel, studying Arabic, and considering a vineyard when she entered politics.[10](https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/learning-to-do-a-double-flip-from-red-to-blue-and-from-reporter-to-politician/2018/09/23/3cfa5a6c-99b5-11e8-8d5e-c6c594024954_story.html)
## 2018 congressional campaign
Cockburn won the Democratic nomination for Virginia's 5th Congressional District on May 5, 2018, a generally Republican district stretching from the Washington, D.C. exurbs to the North Carolina border.[7](https://wallstreetonparade.com/2018/05/america-has-reason-to-hope-leslie-cockburn-is-running-for-congress/) • [10](https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/learning-to-do-a-double-flip-from-red-to-blue-and-from-reporter-to-politician/2018/09/23/3cfa5a6c-99b5-11e8-8d5e-c6c594024954_story.html) She entered the race after the incumbent, Representative Thomas Garrett, dropped his bid for reelection in May, and she faced another political novice, Denver Riggleman, a distillery owner in Nelson County.[10](https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/learning-to-do-a-double-flip-from-red-to-blue-and-from-reporter-to-politician/2018/09/23/3cfa5a6c-99b5-11e8-8d5e-c6c594024954_story.html) The campaign drew national attention in July 2018 when Cockburn tweeted a screenshot of what appeared to be Riggleman's Instagram account showing a lewd picture of Bigfoot, accusing him of being a devotee of "Bigfoot erotica"; Riggleman had self-published a book titled *The Mating Habits of Bigfoot and Why Women Want Him*.[11](https://time.com/5353474/virginia-gop-candidate-bigfoot-erotica/) She lost the general election to Riggleman.[1](https://tv.apple.com/us/person/leslie-cockburn/umc.cpc.26tg5ou93wdf428kjaf2q3646)
She framed the move from reporting to politics as a continuation of the same work. "As a journalist, you can expose wrongs, but you need Congress to take the next step," she told *The Washington Post*.[10](https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/learning-to-do-a-double-flip-from-red-to-blue-and-from-reporter-to-politician/2018/09/23/3cfa5a6c-99b5-11e8-8d5e-c6c594024954_story.html)
## References
1. [Leslie Cockburn Movies and Shows, Apple TV](https://tv.apple.com/us/person/leslie-cockburn/umc.cpc.26tg5ou93wdf428kjaf2q3646)
2. [Leslie Cockburn, VALÉORINE reference](https://www.valeorine.com/reference/leslie-cockburn)
3. [Leslie Cockburn, Festival of Writing and Ideas](https://festivalofwritingandideas.com/speakers/leslie-cockburn/)
4. [Leslie Cockburn, Penguin Random House author page](https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/5217/leslie-cockburn/)
5. [Leslie Cockburn, Spartacus Educational](https://spartacus-educational.com/JFKcockburnL.htm)
6. [Leslie Corkill Redlich Cockburn explores fiction, SFGate / San Francisco Chronicle (2013)](https://www.sfgate.com/books/article/leslie-corkill-redlich-cockburn-explores-fiction-4892824.php)
7. [America Has Reason to Hope: Leslie Cockburn Is Running for Congress, Wall Street on Parade (2018)](https://wallstreetonparade.com/2018/05/america-has-reason-to-hope-leslie-cockburn-is-running-for-congress/)
8. [Leslie Cockburn: Former investigative journalist running to protect health care, Democratic Party of Virginia](https://vademocrats.org/news/leslie-cockburn-former-investigative-journalist-running-protect-health-care-danville-register-bee/)
9. [Oberlin College lecture series release on Andrew and Leslie Cockburn (2000)](https://www2.oberlin.edu/newserv/stories/cockburn_release.html)
10. [Learning to do a double flip: From red to blue and from reporter to politician, The Washington Post (2018)](https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/learning-to-do-a-double-flip-from-red-to-blue-and-from-reporter-to-politician/2018/09/23/3cfa5a6c-99b5-11e8-8d5e-c6c594024954_story.html)
11. [Opponent Accuses Virginia GOP Candidate of Being a 'Bigfoot Erotica' Devotee, Time (2018)](https://time.com/5353474/virginia-gop-candidate-bigfoot-erotica/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Society and history › Broadcasting and journalism › Periodicals and publishing › Journalism › Journalists (biographies and roles) › American journalists*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 17, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 12, 2026; Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license