Richard M. Cohen

Journalist and Multiple Sclerosis Patient

Mr. Cohen began his network television news career at ABC News as the assistant producer of Issues and Answers in 1971. At twenty-four, he served as Ted Koppel’s floor producer for ABC News at both 1972 political conventions and went on to a twenty-year career in network news. Beginning in 1979, Mr. Cohen was a producer on The McNeil/Lehrer Report and then for The CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite. In 1981, he became Dan Rather’s producer when he assumed the anchor chair. At CBS, Mr. Cohen covered the rise of the Solidarity trade union movement in Poland and wars in the Middle East and Central America. He directed presidential campaign coverage for CBS News in 1984 and 1988. In 1989, he produced and directed Illusions of News with Bill Moyers for PBS and in 1992, Bill Clinton of Arkansas, with Ken Bode for CNN. He has been the recipient of numerous awards for journalism, including three Emmys, a George Foster Peabody and a Cable Ace Award.

Mr. Cohen was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1973 and has battled with the disease ever since. He is the author of Blindsided 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. Cohen’s latest book, I Want to Kill the Dog, did not do so well.

Mr. Cohen graduated from Simpson College in 1970 and the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism in 1976. In 1985, he was a fellow of the Institute of Politics, Harvard University and later was awarded a Doctor of Humane Letters at Simpson College and The Mt. Sinai Hospital School of Medicine in New York. Mr. Cohen sits on the advisory council of the NeuroDiscovery Center at Harvard Medical School.

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

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