Jeff Greenfield
American journalist
title: "Jeff Greenfield" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1943-births", "living-people", "american-alternate-history-writers", "american-television-reporters-and-correspondents", "20th-century-american-novelists", "american-male-novelists", "american-speechwriters", "yale-law-school-alumni", "news-&-documentary-emmy-award-winners", "people-from-salisbury,-connecticut", "university-of-wisconsin–madison-alumni", "jewish-american-novelists", "writers-from-manhattan", "novelists-from-new-york-city", "the-bronx-high-school-of-science-alumni", "cbs-news-people", "nbc-news-people", "pbs-hosts", "american-male-non-fiction-writers", "20th-century-american-male-writers", "21st-century-american-jews"] description: "American journalist" topic_path: "history" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Greenfield" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary American journalist ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox person"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | Jeff Greenfield |
| image | Jeff Greenfield 2011 10.jpg |
| caption | Jeff Greenfield at Miller Center, 2011 |
| birthname | Jeffrey Greenfield |
| birth_date | |
| birth_place | New York City, U.S. |
| education | University of Wisconsin, Madison (BA) |
| Yale University (LLB) | |
| occupation | Television journalist, author |
| title | Senior Political Correspondent |
| spouse | |
| children | 2 |
| credits | CBS Evening News Correspondent (2007–2011) |
| URL | |
| :: |
| name = Jeff Greenfield | image = Jeff Greenfield 2011 10.jpg | caption = Jeff Greenfield at Miller Center, 2011 | birthname = Jeffrey Greenfield | birth_date = | birth_place = New York City, U.S. | death_date = | death_place = | education = University of Wisconsin, Madison (BA) Yale University (LLB) | occupation = Television journalist, author | alias = | title = Senior Political Correspondent | family = | spouse = | children = 2 | relatives = | networth = | credits = CBS Evening News Correspondent (2007–2011) | agent = | URL =
Henry Jeffrey Greenfield (born June 10, 1943) is an American television journalist, lawyer, and author.
Early life and education
He was born in New York City, to Benjamin and Helen E. Greenfield. He grew up in Manhattan and graduated in 1960 from the Bronx High School of Science. He has a sister, Janet Greenfield Elmo.
In 1964, he graduated with honors, obtaining a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he served as editor-in-chief of the Daily Cardinal. While at the university, Greenfield was inducted into the Iron Cross (Secret Society). In 1966, Greenfield graduated with honors with a Bachelor of Laws degree from Yale Law School, where he was a Note and Comment editor of the Yale Law Journal.
Career
Greenfield was hired as a speechwriter for the 1968 presidential campaign of Senator Robert F. Kennedy. Greenfield assisted with RFK's speech, "On the Mindless Menace of Violence", that he delivered the day after Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination.
Greenfield was chief speechwriter for New York City Mayor John Lindsay and also worked for seven years with political consultant David Garth.
Over the course of his journalistic career, Greenfield has reported mainly on domestic politics and the media, with occasional pieces on cultural matters. He appeared on the Firing Line television program as early as 1968. For five seasons, he hosted the national public television series "CEO Exchange" where he featured in-depth interviews with high-profile chief executive officers. He served as media commentator for CBS News from 1979 to 1983 and as political and media analyst for ABC News from 1983 to 1997, often appearing on the Nightline program. He was a senior analyst at CNN from 1998 to 2007. On May 1, 2007, Greenfield returned to CBS News, where he served as a senior political correspondent until April 2011. He hosted PBS's "Need to Know" from May 7, 2010, to June 28, 2013. More recently he has done political commentary on NBC Nightly News.
He has also authored or contributed to fourteen books and has written for Time, The New York Times, National Lampoon, Slate, and POLITICO Magazine. He wrote one novel, The People's Choice, with a plot that centers on the Electoral College.
Greenfield has won five Emmy Awards, two for his reporting from South Africa (1985 and 1990) and one for a profile of H. Ross Perot (1992). His bestseller Then Everything Changed was a finalist for the 2011 Sidewise Award for Alternate History, Long Form.
Personal life
Greenfield has been married three times.
- His first wife was Carrie Carmichael, an author, whom he divorced in February 1993. They have two children: daughter Casey, also a Yale Law School graduate, and son David. Casey married screenwriter Matt Manfredi in 2004 and they divorced in 2006. Casey has a son with CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin.
- On April 24, 1993, Greenfield married Karen Anne Gannett, from whom he is now divorced.
- In June 2002, he married Dena Sklar, a real estate broker. They live in Santa Barbara, California, and New York City.
Greenfield has seven grandchildren.
Books
- with Jerry Bruno,
- with Jack Newfield,
References
References
- Plummer, William. (December 4, 1995). "Electoral College Humor".
- [http://www.cbsnews.com/news/greenfield-joins-cbs-news/ CBS News]
- (18 February 2012). "Casey Greenfield v. the World". The New York Times.
- [https://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/17/classified/paid-notice-deaths-greenfield-helen-e.html?pagewanted=all New York Times: "Paid Notice: Deaths GREENFIELD, HELEN E.] October 17, 2001
- (2001-10-18). "Paid Notice: Deaths GREENFIELD, HELEN E.". The New York Times.
- Newfield, Jack. (1988). "Robert Kennedy: A Memoir". Penguin Group.
- "People - Jeff Greenfield".
- Kurtz, Howard. (March 30, 2007). "CNN Analyst Jeff Greenfield to Join CBS". The Washington Post.
- "Need To Know Renewed By PBS Through June 2013".
- (30 April 2013). "May 3, 2013: Retraining America". PBS.
- "The Ugly History of Stephen Miller's 'Cosmopolitan' Epithet". POLITICO Magazine.
- "Jeff Greenfiedl".
- (July 3, 2019). "3 Reasons Not to Worry About Trump's Fourth of July—and 1 Big Reason to Worry".
- [https://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/21/fashion/weddings/21CGRE.html New York Times: "Casey Greenfield, Matt Manfredi"] November 21, 2004
- Rush, George. (February 17, 2010). "CNN legal eagle Jeffrey Toobin in baby mama drama – with daughter of CBS News' Jeff Greenfield". [[Daily News (New York)]].
- [https://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/19/nyregion/in-casey-greenfields-personal-custody-fight-the-makings-of-a-public-expert.html New York Times: "Casey Greenfield v. the World" By ROBIN FINN] February 17, 2012
- (May 8, 2010). "Baby drama! CNN star Jeffrey Toobin offered Casey Greenfield money for abortion: sources". New York Daily News.
- (November 21, 2004). "Casey Greenfield, Matt Manfredi". The New York Times.
- Finn, Robin. (February 17, 2012). "Casey Greenfield v. the World". The New York Times.
- (April 25, 1993). "WEDDINGS; Jeff Greenfield and Karen Gannett". [[The New York Times]].
- (November 2, 2013). "Jeff Greenfield to discuss book on what might have been had JFK lived". The Blade.
- "What has happened to CNN's Jeff Greenfield?". Newspapers.com.
- "Veteran political analyst Jeff Greenfield speaking to campus, alumni about turbulent events of 1968 (and today)".
- (October 2024). "Jeff Greenfield". University of Chicago.
::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::