Sharyl Attkisson is a five-time Emmy Award winner and recipient of the Edward R. Murrow award for investigative reporting. She is author of three best sellers: “Slanted: How the media taught us to love censorship and hate journalism,” "The Smear: How Shady Political Operatives and Fake News Control What You See, What You Think and How You Vote,” and "Stonewalled." She is host and managing editor of the Sunday morning national TV news program, Sinclair's "Full Measure," which focuses on investigative and accountability reporting.
Attkisson has delivered two popular TEDx talks: Is Fake News Real? (2017) and Astroturf and Manipulation of Media Messages (2015) that have drawn a combined 3.4 million views online.
For thirty years, Attkisson was a correspondent and anchor at CBS News, PBS, CNN and in local news.
In 2013, she received an Emmy Award for Outstanding Investigative Journalism for her reporting on "The Business of Congress," which included an undercover investigation into fundraising by Republican freshmen. She received two other Emmy nominations in 2013 for "Benghazi: Dying for Security" and "Green Energy Going Red." Additionally, Attkisson received a 2013 Daytime Emmy Award as part of the CBS Sunday Morning team's entry for Outstanding Morning Program for her report: "Washington Lobbying: K-Street Behind Closed Doors."
In September 2012, Attkisson received the Emmy for Outstanding Investigative Journalism and the RTNDA Edward R. Murrow Award for Excellence in Investigative Reporting for the "Gunwalker: Fast and Furious" story.
Attkisson received an Investigative Emmy Award in 2009 for her exclusive investigations into TARP and the bank bailout. She received an Investigative Emmy Award in 2002 for her series of exclusive reports about mismanagement at the Red Cross.
Attkisson is one of the few journalists to have flown in a B-52 on a combat mission (over Kosovo) and in an F-15 fighter jet Combat Air Patrol flight. She is a fifth degree black belt master in TaeKwonDo.
Previously, Attkisson hosted a medical news magazine on PBS called "HealthWeek," anchored for CNN, and reported at several local news stations. She is a graduate of the University of Florida School of Journalism and Communications and has led the college’s advisory committee. She also founded and sponsors the ION Awards for Investigative and Off Narrative Journalism.
Topics include:
- The unseen influences of political, corporate and special interests on the images and information the public receives daily in the news, online and elsewhere.
- A career covering Washington D.C. through three administrations.
The declining appetite for watchdog investigative journalism among media outlets even as the public values that role above all.
- The growing lack of accountability of federal and elected officials who are increasingly allowed to behave as if the public works for them rather than the other way around.
- The government’s increasing lack of responsiveness to and manipulation of Freedom of Information law.
- The cozy and conflicted partnerships between corporate America and the government politicians who are supposed to watchdog them, and how the American public loses in the relationship.