Chris Whipple
Journalist & Filmmaker
Chris Whipple is one of the most accomplished multimedia journalists of our era: a writer, documentary filmmaker, and speaker. He is a multiple Peabody and Emmy Award–winning producer at CBS’s 60 Minutes and ABC’s Primetime. He is currently the chief executive officer of CCWHIP Productions and is a frequent guest on MSNBC and CNN. Chris served as the executive producer and writer of Showtime’s 2015 documentary film The Spymasters: CIA in the Crosshairs. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Newsweek, Vanity Fair, Politico, the Daily Beast, and many other publications. His last book, Gatekeepers, on White House Chiefs of Staff was a NYTimes bestseller. Whipple recently published his book “The Spymasters” which provided a remarkable, behind-the-scenes look at the world’s most powerful intelligence agency.
Friend of The Common Good and titan of TV and journalism, Tom Brokaw, described Whipple’s book, The Spymasters, this way: “Fascinating…Whipple parts the curtains on the dark arts to show the triumphs and failures, the personalities and rivalries of those who work in the shadows of espionage.”
The Spymasters resonates with themes from today’s headlines. It is the story of how CIA directors have stood up to rogue presidents, from Richard Nixon to Donald Trump. It was Director Richard Helms’s refusal to carry out the Watergate coverup that brought down Nixon; in the scandal over President Trump’s shakedown of Ukraine’s president, it was a CIA whistleblower who brought Trump to the verge of being removed from office. Most important, in times of national crisis, including deadly pandemics, the CIA director must be the president’s, and the nation’s, honest broker of information.
Chris Whipple participated in The Spymasters: How The CIA Directors Shaped History & the Future on December 17, 2020. Whipple and Bird discussed the CIA's innerworkings, successes and failures, role in American history, and ultimately its fundamental purpose.
