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Richard M Cohen

Author 'Chasing Hope' (2018)

Richard M. Cohen began his network television news career at ABC News in 1971 as assistant producer of Issues and Answers and floor producer for ABC News at both 1972 political conventions. He went on to a 20-year career in network television news.

Cohen was a producer on PBS’s McNeil Lehrer Report and in 1979, for The CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite, serving as Dan Rather’s producer when he assumed the anchor chair in 1981. At CBS, Cohen covered the rise of the Solidarity trade union movement in Poland and wars in the Middle East and Central America. He specialized in politics, directing presidential campaign coverage for CBS News in 1984 and 1988. In 1989, Cohen produced and directed “Illusions of News with Bill Moyers” for PBS and in 1992, “Bill Clinton of Arkansas” for CNN. Cohen has been the recipient of numerous awards in journalism, including three Emmys, a George Foster Peabody and a Cable Ace Award.

Cohen is the author of Blindsided, published in 2004, which chronicled his battles with multiple sclerosis and cancer, and Strong at the Broken Places in 2008, both New York Times Best Sellers. He also published a countercultural ode to everyone's pet madness called I Want to Kill the Dog in 2012. Cohen wrote 'Chronically Upbeat', a semi-weekly online column for AARP: The Magazine. His new book, Chasing Hope, will be released in 2018.

Richard M. Cohen is married to journalist Meredith Vieira, with whom he has three grown children.