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
Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...
and graduated in 1960 from the
Bronx High School of Science
The Bronx High School of Science is a State school, public Specialized high schools in New York City, specialized high school in the Bronx in New York City. It is operated by the New York City Department of Education. Admission to Bronx 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
The University of Wisconsin–Madison (University of Wisconsin, Wisconsin, UW, UW–Madison, or simply Madison) is a public land-grant research university in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. It was founded in 1848 when Wisconsin achieved st ...
, 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
A Bachelor of Laws (; LLB) is an undergraduate law degree offered in most common law countries as the primary law degree and serves as the first professional qualification for legal practitioners. This degree requires the study of core legal subje ...
degree from
Yale Law School
Yale Law School (YLS) is the law school of Yale University, a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was established in 1824. The 2020–21 acceptance rate was 4%, the lowest of any law school in the United ...
, 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
CBS News is the news division of the American television and radio broadcaster CBS. It is headquartered in New York City. CBS News television programs include ''CBS Evening News'', ''CBS Mornings'', news magazine programs ''CBS News Sunday Morn ...
from 1979 to 1983 and as political and media analyst for
ABC News ABC News most commonly refers to:
* ABC News (Australia), a national news service of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation
* ABC News (United States), a news-gathering and broadcasting division of the American Broadcasting Company
ABC News may a ...
from 1983 to 1997, often appearing on the ''
Nightline
''Nightline'' (or ''ABC News Nightline'') is ABC News (United States), ABC News' Late night television in the United States, late-night television news program broadcast on American Broadcasting Company, ABC in the United States with a franchis ...
'' 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
''NBC Nightly News'' (titled as ''NBC Nightly News with Tom Llamas'' for its weeknight broadcasts ) is the flagship daily evening News broadcasting#Television, television news program for NBC News, the news division of the NBC television network ...
''.
He has also authored or contributed to fourteen books and has written for ''
Time
Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...
'', ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'', ''
National Lampoon'', ''
Slate'', and
POLITICO
''Politico'' (stylized in all caps), known originally as ''The Politico'', is an American political digital newspaper company founded by American banker and media executive Robert Allbritton in 2007. It covers politics and policy in the Unit ...
Magazine. He wrote one novel, ''
The People's Choice'', with a plot that centers on the Electoral College.
Greenfield has won five
Emmy Award
The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award categor ...
s, 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.
[New York Times: "Casey Greenfield, Matt Manfredi"]
November 21, 2004
*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,
*
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References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Greenfield, Jeff
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 people
American male non-fiction writers
20th-century American male writers
21st-century American Jews