On the December 30th broadcast (below) of "Gross Reality," Steve Gross discussed worldwide events, the economy, & Washington with Art Harris, a two-time Emmy Award-winning veteran investigative correspondent who was also an embedded reporter in Iraq. Art is also a producer, television personality, and entertainment reporter. His career in broadcasting, international news, and entertainment gives him a unique perspective on the times we are living through now.
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Art Harris has gone from Nasirya to Neverland and beyond…from 13 years with CNN as a two-time Emmy Award-winning investigative correspondent and embedded reporter in Iraq, to breaking Hollywood scoops and scandals like Michael Jackson as a special correspondent and investigative producer for Entertainment Tonight and The Insider…CBS Early Show contributor, TV personality AND a regular on HLN’s Nancy Grace, JVM, Showbiz, and (formerly) Court TV.
As a TV producer, he created and exec produced the new E! series pilot, “Bonded for Life,” about an aspiring 35-year-old Donald Trump-like character, of Las Vegas Bail Bonds and his gorgeous wife, whose family biz makes $2 million a year betting on losers. Art has several other shows and multi platform projects in development.
A veteran journalist, he created The Bald Truth (www.artharris.com), a popular news blog with attitude that goes behind big stories to break exclusives and video that airs on CNN, HLN, ET and elsewhere. The site counts an estimated 200,000 visits and 1.2 million page views/mo., recently focusing on in depth coverage of MJ’s death and missing Florida six year old Haleigh Cummings.
Art draws on three decades covering politics, the military, true crime, celebrity and pop culture. A Pulitzer nominee at The Washington Post, as Atlanta bureau chief and Style section writer…You’ve seen his war reporting, celeb exclusives and profiles on CNN.com, ETonline, New York Post's Page Six, CelebTV.com, HuffingtonPost.com, The Los Angeles Times, The International Herald Tribune, People, Rolling Stone, Readers Digest, Esquire, MORE, Penthouse…and now The Bald Truth, aka www.artharris.com.
A story for People in 2007 about a paralyzed Iraqi baby named Karm sparked a humanitarian effort by the U.S. Army to whisk the child to Texas for free surgery, and the parents, both doctors, to safety after the good deed sparked death threats – and international acclaim.
For ET, Art covered the 2004 and 2008 Presidential campaigns, landed a rare White House tour with First Lady Laura Bush that drew 30 million viewers, sit-downs with John and Cindy McCain in Sedona, Gov. Sarah Palin and “First Dude” in Alaska, and Sen. Barack Obama at the Democratic Convention; he broke numerous high profile scoops on the death and aftermath of Anna Nicole Smith.
As a ratings rainmaker, he obtained exclusive police videotape of the mother of Michael Jackson’s accuser for ET and its sister show, The Insider—for a knockout launch of The Insider in 2004, instant headlines and personal kudos from CBS President Les Moonves.
Covering MJ for CNN, he scored an apology from then DA Tom Sneddon for "unprofessional behavior" in dissing “whacko Jacko." LARRY KING, who broke Art’s story on his show, hailed the journalist as “one of the best in the business.”
Recruited by ET and CBS, Art went on to break even bigger Jackson scoops, including the state AG’s report exonerating sheriff’s deputies of Jackson abuse claims, and a sit-down with the late pop star’s cellmate. He also packs a Sony HD camcorder, to shoot for the site, news clients and his own TV pilots.
Riveting Iraq footage he shot under fire during one of the bloodiest battles of the war in Nasirya -- and among the worst friendly fire incidents to date -- broke on CNN and drew applause from generals and embedded journalists when Art was invited to speak at The Army War College in Carlyle, Pa., a former Navy officer right at home in the dirt with the Marines.
A frequent guest on The Nancy Grace Show, and Jane Velez Mitchell, Art has had stories featured on ABC's Good Morning America, CBS Early Show, FOX News, Geraldo Rivera, and elsewhere.
Former Atlanta bureau chief for The Washington Post, he was nominated by its Style section for a Pulitzer-Prize in feature writing and counts 11 National Headliner Awards for a variety of stories in print and television.
Art also wrote the successful treatment for - and helped produce - a pilot on missing kids for Original Productions, that aired on A & E in 2008, and created the reality doc pilot about O.J. Simpson’s bail bondsman and his colorful family, that Comcast and E! Entertainment commissioned as a full-blown series pilot.
Popular on the college circuit, he's taught broadcast news and magazine writing as a guest lecturer at Oglethorpe University, appeared on panels at Duke University Law School about the media's role in reporting the Iraq war and worked with students at UGA’s respected Grady School of Journalism on how to cover major criminal cases and trials.
As a CNN correspondent embedded with the 2nd Marines during the war in Iraq, he filed dozens of exclusive reports under fire with a light armored recon unit there, from the hunt for Chemical Ali, WMD and German gas masks and chemical gear in Iraqi army bunkers.
Art Harris is a compelling storyteller who has covered sensational trials, big crimes, Presidential campaigns…even busted con men hawking sugar water as a bogus miracle cure for dying AIDs patients. In a dramatic on camera debunking, Art accepted the huckster’s dare to drink the elixir “because it just might grow you some hair,” and chugged a glass alongside the man who was later arrested.
At The Washington Post, he worked briefly as a film critic, then as an investigative reporter for legendary Bob Woodward…covered the South and exposed everything from voter fraud in Mississippi to environmental horrors like Times Beach to sex scandals of televangelists Jim Bakker and Rev. Jimmy Swaggart; he broke the first story on once-secret-Delta Force commandos and draws on vast law enforcement and military ties to take viewers behind the headlines with scoops and insider commentary.
Author Dominick Dunne featured Harris and his OJ Simpson scoops in Vanity Fair, and in his novel, “A City Not My Own.” The late best-selling author William Diehl named reporters in two his novels, "Art Harris." And the late "gonzo" journalist Hunter S. Thompson fondly called him “an evil chrome dome scorpion” for his tenacious reporting.
Digging for CBS 48 Hours, Art scored an exclusive with new Jackson attorney Tom Mesereau when he took the case and has contributed to The CBS Early Show, which also mentioned www.artharris.com exclusives.
In 2002, he was on the CNN investigative team that won a National Headliner Award for coverage of 9-11, and tracked the hijackers to their Atlanta training. An acclaimed hour special Harris conceived on The Hunt for Eric Rudolph, Atlanta’s Olympic Park bomber, won a Cine Gold Eagle, one of three.
Harris also broke exclusive stories in the sensational “Gold Club” federal racketeering trial of a Gambino organized crime figure convicted of extortion, prostitution and credit card fraud stemming from an Atlanta strip club that offered superstar athletes free sex with strippers – to lure fans who were fleeced with impunity.
He broke exclusives in the Columbine High School shootings in Colorado, receiving nominations for Emmy and Peabody awards by CNN, covered the death of Princess Diana, filing reports from Paris and London, using his fluent French to investigate mysterious circumstances surrounding the crash.
During the first 18 months of the O.J. Simpson case, Harris broke hundreds of exclusives for CNN; the LosAngeles Times wrote that fellow reporters "applauded Art Harris of CNN for getting a number of stories before anyone else."
Harris was also part of CNN's Emmy Award-winning coverage of the Oklahoma City bombing. He won an American Women Award in Radio & Television and a WorldFest Gold Award in 1996 for his story about a Georgia prosecutor who coped with her fiancé’s murder by crusading for crime victims in court.
“Art discovered me,” says CNN’s Nancy Grace, a close personal friend who was an Atlanta prosecutor with Art’s late sister. Art broke Nancy’s moving personal story on CNN. He also counts a 1999 Golden Triangle Award for his profile of a bald beauty queen with alopecia areata, an auto-immune disorder that causes baldness. Harris is among 4 million Americans who have alopecia, and mentors children who lose their hair through the Alopecia Parents Foundation.
Rev. Jimmy Swaggart once blasted Harris for obtaining – and airing - exclusive photos of him with a prostitute he interviewed for a CNN special, Godfathers of the Gospel, then called a press conference to announce God had advised him to forgive Art—good legal advice. Art has written extensively for magazines as well, scoring shocking and exclusive interviews with everyone from Jimmy Swaggart’s hooker to Jennifer Flowers, the former Clinton mistress for Penthouse.
Harris has also developed stories into books and movies; he created and packaged “Confessions of a Carb Queen,” (Rodale, Jan. 2008). Optioned by Sony Television, which signed Harris as co-executive producer.
Way ahead of the TV crime curve, in the early 90s, he developed the "Crime Stories" hour magazine concept for CNN, scoring ratings for segments like the dangers of illegal street racing and a bully murder. He found torture victims of the Ethiopian holocaust working in Atlanta hotels for a CNN special called Seeking Justice that won awards; DreamWorks Studio optioned a Harris project about the first white baseball player in the “Negro Leagues” down South for Adam Sandler.
Harris earned a bachelor's degree in political science and French literature from Duke University. A former Navy officer, he attended the Harvard Business School. He is married to Carol Martin, and has two sons, Josh, and Adam, both college students and avid musicians, and a Jack Russell named Zipper.
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