Turnham, Steve

Turnham, Steve

Managing Editor and Washington Bureau Chief at Scripps News

Steve Turnham is a 30 year veteran of television news and the current Managing Editor and Washington Bureau Chief of Scripps News. He oversees the political, investigative, national security and international units as well as Scripps’ national reporters. He now leads Scripps Disinformation Desk, a five person team dedicated to smoking out disinformation, with a particular focus on how generative AI is pouring gas onto the already raging dumpster fire.

Turnham got his start in news as a copy aide and writer for the Washington Post, before moving on to CNN as a producer for CNN’s political unit, the network’s Senate producer, the documentary and investigative team, and then as senior producer for Anderson Cooper 360 where he covered 9/11, the conflict in Afghanistan and the aftermath of the earthquake in Haiti. 

His work for the investigative team on the trafficking of underage girls contributed to Craigslist’s decision to shut down its adult services section and to the closure of Backpage.com. 

After CNN, Turnham helped launch and executive produce Al Jazeera America’s flagship longform and investigative program America Tonight with Joie Chen.

Turnham then moved to ABC News as lead Washington producer for This Week with George Stephanopoulos for the 2016 election, then to ABC’s Global Affairs unit where he was senior producer for chief global affairs correspondent Martha Raddatz before going ton to help produce ABC’s primetime documentary series on 1969, focused on the impact of the Vietnam War on U.S. political and social life.

He joined Scripps News in 2020.