Frank Sesno

Award winning journalist Frank Sesno is currently vice president and Washington bureau chief for CNN, where he supervises the network’s largest news gathering team. In addition to overseeing the bureau’s daily operations, Sesno’s responsibilities include editorial direction and decision making for the network’s White House, Congressional, Pentagon, State Department and general Washington news reporting. Sesno also serves as host of CNN's flagship weekend public affairs program, “Late Edition with Frank Sesno”, where he interviews some of the nation’s and the world’s most influential newsmakers. During the program, Sesno fields phone-in questions from viewers and reviews the week’s top news stories with other prominent Washington journalists.

During major news events, Sesno provides on-air analysis and commentary. He also contributes special reporting projects to the network. For the 1996 political cycle, Sesno anchored “Inside Politics Extra”, the network’s daily morning political update, the conventions and election night congressional returns.

Prior to his promotion to bureau chief, Sesno served as CNN's executive editor in Washington, directing coverage and overseeing a major reorganization of the news room. Previously, he co-anchored two daily news programs- “The International Hour” and “The World Today”. From 1984 to 1991, Sesno was CNN's White House correspondent.

Sesno has anchored and reported at many major international and domestic events, including political conventions, Presidential and economic summit meetings, Middle East Peace talks, the 50th anniversary of D-Day from Normandy and the 1994 Los Angeles earthquake. He has interviewed numerous world leaders, including Presidents Bush and Reagan, First Lady Hilary Rodham Clinton, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Vice President Al Gore, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Jordanian King Hussein and Czech President Vaclac Havel.

Many of Sesno’s special reports and documentaries have been recognized by his peers. He won a prestigious Emmy Award for coverage of the 1993 Midwest flooding, “In Nature’s Wake” . His coverage of superpower summits won a Cable ACE award. His interview with the president of Mexico won a Houston International Film Festival award. His “Democracy in America” series on economic dislocation in America earned a first place in economic reporting from United Awards in Media at Lincoln University. While based in London, Sesno received the Overseas Press Club Award for Best Spot News Reporting from Abroad.

Sesno joined CNN in 1984 from AP Radio where he was overseas correspondent in London and White House correspondent. Before joining AP radio, Sesno was with the Voice of America and WCFR Radio in Springfield, Vermont.

A member of the Council on Foreign Relations, Sesno also serves on the Board of Trustees of Middlebury College and the Robert F Kennedy Memorial Journalism Awards.

Conversant in Spanish and French, Sesno graduated cum laude from Middlebury College with an honors degree in American history.

He is married and resides in Virginia with his wife and three children.

Sample Topics

Frank Sesno is a dynamic and informal speaker who draws in his audience with humor, anecdotes from the trenches and a strong message. He encourages participation and questions as a means of personalizing his talks and tailoring them to the interests of his audience.

A keen observer of domestic and international events, Sesno sheds light on the issues of our time and honestly assesses the media’s performance.
The following are a few of his many speech offerings:

Inside The Beltway
What Americans are thinking about, what politicians are talking about, what reporters are writing about and the gap in between this is the focus of this lively discussion. Included are some harsh warnings about the nation’s long term challenges: education, the deficit, social security, rich versus poor. Has inside-the-beltway come to mean out of-the-loop?
A World Apart
We have begun moving toward the “global village” reality, but it is not easy, and we don’t always speak the same language. This talk is a provocative and engaging discussion of the perils of the post cold war world and the media’s role in international communications. What are the challenges ahead? How will the media digest and explain the New World Order?
What's News?
How do the decision makers in the media decide what is news and what is not what the public will see and hear and read? Is there a bias that interferes with responsible reporting? Whose opinion counts most and has journalistic ethics’ become lust another oxymoron? This discussion has never been more timely and is guaranteed to provoke vigorous give and take with the audience. Few are in a better position to offer insights into the people and decision making behind the news.
The Global Information Boom
The internet. Satellite phones. 24-hour global news. The communications revolution has transformed the way the media and decision makers do business. Both have had to adjust to ‘real time’ coverage. From the Persian Gulf War to political reporting instant mass communication has changed our lives. What are the ethical dilemmas? When does reporting go too far? How has this complicated the lives of national leaders, journalists and news consumers?
Washington Update
Get the very latest on the events of the day, the issues that make Washington tick - and fume. The political atmosphere sets the tone and often the agenda in Washington. Who’s up and who’s down? What are the issues that focus political and national attention? This talk will examine the presidency, the congress, critical legislation, the mix between public policy and public opinion what gets done and what merely gets talked about.

For all your programing needs contact Jeri Charles Associates.

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