Martin Clancy

Martin Clancy is a journalist known for his ability to handle tough subjects, tight deadlines and dynamic personalities. He is a writer, producer and director whose work has earned five national Emmys, the Dupont-Columbia Award, and the George Polk Award, among other honors.

At ABC News, Clancy forged a powerful 30-year partnership with Barbara Walters. The two have aired interviews with eight Presidents, and have profiled subjects as diverse as Monica Lewinsky, Vladimir Putin, Boris Yeltsin, Jiang Zemin, Colin Powell, Norman Schwarzkopf, Hillary Clinton, Muammar Qaddafi, Fidel Castro, Mike Wallace, and the Prince of Wales. He and Walters have produced highly-acclaimed special broadcasts on topics ranging from the business of adoption to the inside intrigues of Saudi Arabia. Says Walters of Clancy: “He’s simply the best.”

Clancy has also worked with Diane Sawyer, Charlie Gibson, Peter Jennings and a full range of correspondents at ABC News. He has written for figures so ideologically diverse as Bill Moyers and John Stossel. In 2006, he crafted Stossel’s Myths, Lies and Downright Stupidity for ABCs’ partner publisher, Hyperion. The book was on the New York Times best-seller list for 12 weeks.

In his work for 20/20, Clancy has arguably produced more news-magazine stories than anyone in network television. In addition, he has been closely involved in special coverage for ABC ranging from election nights to the attacks of 9-11; has served in management as a Senior Producer and Executive Producer; and has participated in the design and buildout of the news division’s digital platforms.

The cab of an AMTRAK locomotive served as the focal point of "Still on the Wrong Track," an investigative story into the causes of a 1987 railroad crash. That segment won the Barone Award of the Radio and Television Correspondents Association, as well as an Emmy Award. Clancy’s other investigative topics have included the roots of the U.S.S. Iowa disaster, problems with the Trident submarine project, the perils of government whistle-blowing, and the secrets of a mysterious community of cult-like Catholic nuns.

Prior to joining ABC, Clancy was with CBS News as the Washington producer of the CBS MORNING NEWS and a founding producer of the weekly program, SUNDAY MORNING with Charles Kuralt.

Clancy spent six years in public television, producing Special Events broadcasts, documentaries, and the series, BILL MOYERS' JOURNAL. He and Moyers found themselves covering stories as varied as elections in Vietnam and the plight of migrant farm workers in Florida. Clancy produced the landmark Moyers documentaries, "An Essay on Watergate," and “A Question of Impeachment.” Moyers describes him as “a genius at using the techniques of television to penetrate to the reality that lies behind a politician’s façade.”

Also at PBS, Clancy was Executive Producer of public television's gavel-to-gavel coverage of the Watergate hearings and of the 1972 political conventions.

Clancy served for two years as Executive Producer of News for WTOP-TV in Washington, D.C. He has been a producer for NET's Public Broadcast Laboratory, a writer for WCBS-TV News in New York, and a reporter, editor and broadcaster for radio stations WICC in Bridgeport, Conn., and WVOX, New Rochelle, N.Y. He has also written for New York Magazine.

A native of New York City, Clancy earned his bachelor's degree from Iona College and a master's degree in journalism from Columbia University. He taught at Columbia for a year after graduation, working closely with a brand-new professor on the block, Fred W. Friendly, who had been forced out of his position as President of CBS News. Clancy assisted Friendly in his course work and in the preparation of the book, "Due to Circumstances Beyond Our Control."