Steven Singer papers

Award-winning news producer and investigative journalist Steven H. Singer worked for the Houston Chronicle before moving on to television news documentary work. Singer reported and produced for KERA (PBS) in Dallas, CBS Reports, 60 Minutes, ABC News, 20/20, Nightline, CNN, ESPN, and others.

In 1969, Singer worked as a general assignment reporter for the Houston Chronicle. In 1971, he and several colleagues working in Houston media began the Houston Journalism Review, which critiqued Houston media.

At Dallas public television station KERA, Singer was an on-air reporter. Eventually, the station started a documentary unit with Singer as its producer. Singer’s first documentary was Big Thicket Holler, which depicted the conflict between timber owners and environmentalists over the creation of a national park in East Texas. The award-winning broadcast was shown nationally on PBS and requested by the Library of Congress for its film collection. His next broadcast, A Thirst in the Garden, documented conditions of farmworkers in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley. It received a George Foster Peabody Award.

In 1977, Singer joined CBS Reports with Bill Moyers, where he produced a story on Texas banking practices. In May 1978, he started at ABC's Close-Up. His documentary on chemical waste disposal, The Killing Ground, received awards including an Oscar nomination, two Emmy Awards, and a Christopher Award.

In 1988, Singer joined 60 Minutes, working mostly overseas with stories on the Japanese mafia and the Vietnamese boat people. He returned to Austin, Texas, in 1990 where he continued his investigative work as a freelance journalist. His Texas stories included investigations of cost overruns in national parks, coverage of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and the Oklahoma City federal building bombing, as well as stories from the Texas-Mexico border.