Christopher Isham is an American journalist currently serving as Chief of

CBS News CBS News is the news division of the American television and radio service CBS. CBS News television programs include the ''CBS Evening News'', ''CBS Mornings'', news magazine programs '' CBS News Sunday Morning'', '' 60 Minutes'', and '' 48 H ...

' Washington Bureau, a position he has held since July 2007. Isham spent nineteen years with ABC News, beginning as an associate producer in 1978, eventually serving as ABC's Chief of Investigative Projects. In addition to his roles with ABC and CBS, he helped build the website The Blotter with investigative reporter Brian Ross.

Early life

Chris Isham, the son of

Heyward Isham Henry Heyward Isham (4 November 1926 – 18 June 2009), was an American diplomat, Foreign Service Officer and editor. He was the negotiator who played an important role in the talks with North Vietnam that led to the Peace accord of 1973.Martin We ...

, a Foreign Service Officer and Sheila Eaton, an artist, was born in Berlin. He graduated from Yale University in 1976 and began his career in the documentary unit at NBC News. In 1978 he became an associate producer at ABC News.

Career

In May 1998, Isham organized the first major network interview with

Osama bin Laden Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden (10 March 1957 – 2 May 2011) was a Saudi-born extremist militant who founded al-Qaeda and served as its leader from 1988 until Killing of Osama bin Laden, his death in 2011. Ideologically a Pan-Islamism ...

, and broke other major stories exposing security threats at U.S. airports, CIA interrogation techniques, post-

Hurricane Katrina Hurricane Katrina was a destructive Category 5 Atlantic hurricane that caused over 1,800 fatalities and $125 billion in damage in late August 2005, especially in the city of New Orleans and the surrounding areas. It was at the time the cost ...

insurance fraud, and secret tapes of Saddam Hussein. Isham was Chief of Investigative Projects for ABC News in New York from 2001-2007 where he built an investigative unit that has been recognized as one of the most successful of its kind in television news. His unit was responsible for breaking hundreds of new stories and exclusive reports on a range of topics from terrorism to political corruption. At ABC, Isham produced the programming for all ABC broadcasts including, ''

ABC World News Tonight ''ABC World News Tonight'' (titled ''ABC World News Tonight with David Muir'' for its weeknight broadcasts since September 2014) is the flagship daily evening news broadcasting#television, television news program of ABC News, the news division ...

'', ''

Nightline ''Nightline'' (or ''ABC News Nightline'') is ABC News' late-night television news program broadcast on ABC in the United States with a franchised formula to other networks and stations elsewhere in the world. Created by Roone Arledge, the progra ...

'', ''

20/20 Visual acuity (VA) commonly refers to the clarity of vision, but technically rates an examinee's ability to recognize small details with precision. Visual acuity is dependent on optical and neural factors, i.e. (1) the sharpness of the retinal ...

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Primetime Prime time or the peak time is the block of broadcast programming taking place during the middle of the evening for a television show. It is mostly targeted towards adults (and sometimes families). It is used by the major television networks to ...

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Good Morning America ''Good Morning America'' (often abbreviated as ''GMA'') is an American morning television program that is broadcast on ABC. It debuted on November 3, 1975, and first expanded to weekends with the debut of a Sunday edition on January 3, 1993. Th ...

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ABC News Radio ABC News Radio is the news radio service of ABC Audio, a division of ABC News in the United States. Formerly known as ABC Radio News, ABC News Radio feeds, through Skyview Networks, five minute newscasts on the hour and news briefs at half-pas ...

and ABCNews.com. His unit also built an investigative site called the “Blotter” on ABCNews.com that broke many major stories including the Mark Foley story. Isham was named Vice President and Washington Bureau Chief for CBS News in 2007, where he is responsible for news gathering, personnel, and technical operations for all major CBS News broadcasts. Isham faced significant questions about his journalistic ethics in 2011 when it was revealed by the Daily Beast that he was a confidential informant for the FBI in the 90s. Isham has been the recipients of numerous major industry awards throughout his career including multiple news Emmys, two Columbia DuPont Awards, a

Peabody Award The George Foster Peabody Awards (or simply Peabody Awards or the Peabodys) program, named for the American businessman and philanthropist George Peabody, honor the most powerful, enlightening, and invigorating stories in television, radio, and ...

, four National Headliner Awards, two Overseas Press Club Awards, the ABA Gavel Award, the Joan Shorenstein Barone Award and three

Edward R. Murrow Awards The Edward R. Murrow Award may refer to one of several awards named after American journalist Edward R. Murrow: * Edward R. Murrow Award (Corporation for Public Broadcasting), given out to individuals in public radio since 1977 * Edward Murrow Awa ...

from the Radio Television News Directors Association (RTNDA) and an Investigative Reporters and Editors Award for online journalism.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Isham, Chris Living people Year of birth missing (living people) CBS News people ABC News personalities Yale University alumni American male journalists 20th-century American journalists 21st-century American journalists American television journalists