George Crile III

George Crile III (March 5, 1945 - May 15, 2006) was a United States journalist most closely associated with his three decades of work at CBS News.

After studies at the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University and Trinity College, Hartford, Crile worked as a reporter for Washington columnists Drew Pearson and Jack Anderson, and as the Pentagon correspondent for Ridder Newspapers. Crile came from a line of pioneering surgeons. His grandfather, Dr. George Washington Crile, was a founder of the Cleveland Clinic. His father, Dr. George Crile Jr., was a leading figure in the United States in challenging unnecessary surgery, best known for his part in eliminating radical breast surgery. His wife was Susan Lyne, former President of ABC Entertainment and now CEO of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia.

Crile died at age 61 from pancreatic cancer.

Crile was both a producer and reporter for CBS. His career with the company spanned three decades until his death in 2006. Before joining CBS at the age of 31, Crile was Washington Editor of Harper's Magazine. In addition to Harper's, his articles were published in The Washington Monthly, New Times, The Washington Post Outlook Section and The New York Times.

Crile joined CBS News in 1976 to produce The CIA's Secret Army, his trail-breaking documentary that chronicled the previously untold story of the CIA’s secret wars on Castro after the Bay of Pigs. Historian Henry Steele Commager wrote that it would go down as one of the most important journalistic reports in American history.

It was the first of a collection of broadcasts based on Crile's reporting, in which he took viewers into previously closed and inaccessible worlds. Among his notable documentary reports were The Battle for South Africa, which won a Peabody Award and The Uncounted Enemy, a Vietnam Deception. The latter, which aired on January 23, 1982, was the subject a libel action brought by General William Westmoreland. CBS News and Crile were defended by attorney David Boies.

In 1985, Crile joined 60 Minutes, where he produced scores of reports with Mike Wallace, Ed Bradley and Harry Reasoner and established his credentials as a specialist in coverage of international affairs. He was on the forefront of covering the disintegration of the Soviet Union, and in collaboration with a Russian counterpart Artyom Borovik he became the only American reporter ever to gain access to the Soviet Union's nuclear empire.