Anchors & Reporters
Abbie Boudreau

Abbie Boudreau is an investigative correspondent for CNN’s Special Investigations and Documentary unit. She is based in CNN’s world headquarters in Atlanta.

In addition to reporting investigative stories for various CNN programs, Boudreau contributes to other long-form programming.

Boudreau joined CNN in October 2007. Since that time, her work has earned her the Livingston Award for international reporting, a national Emmy nomination, a National Headliner Award, a national Clarion Award, and she was an IRE finalist for an investigative series called “Hurricane Giveaway.” Her reporting exposed why millions of dollars of brand new household supplies that were supposed to be given to survivors of Hurricane Katrina, instead gathered dust in warehouses. The items were later given away to various state and federal agencies. As a result of Boudreau’s reporting, thousands of items were recovered and handed over to victims of Hurricane Katrina.

Other investigations have also led to significant changes. Just this year, she investigated the controversial 96-hour rule that NATO soldiers were operating under in Afghanistan. Under the policy, soldiers had just 96 hours to detain suspects, then had to release them or turn them over to Afghan authorities. One month after the story aired on AC 360, the United States Department of Defense announced the rule was being eliminated, and a new policy was put into effect.

In 2009, at a time the U.S. Postal Service was facing a financial crisis, Boudreau exposed its practice of buying million dollar homes to relocate its employees. The policy was changed as a result of the story.

Boudreau has worked on multiple CNN documentaries, investigations and special reports, including “Killings at the Canal: The Army Tapes,” Biden: Revealed,” “Campus Rage,” “Fall of the Fat Cats,” and “Death and Taxes: Joe Stack’s Attack On The IRS.”

The “Killings At The Canal” documentary was the entry for this year’s Livingston Award. It aired both on CNN and CNN International and generated thousands of responses from viewers around the world.

She was also a finalist for the Livingston Award in 2008. Before joining CNN, Boudreau worked as an investigative reporter at KNXV-TV, the ABC affiliate in Phoenix.

In 2005, Boudreau was the first journalist to expose a possible design flaw in tires produced by Cooper Tire & Rubber Co., the nation’s fourth-largest tire manufacturer. A year later, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) launched a defect investigation into one line of Cooper’s tires. In 2007, Cooper Tire recalled thousands of its tires after NHTSA found they were susceptible to tread separation. Boudreau has received numerous awards for her work, including regional Edward R. Murrow awards for investigative reporting in 2006 and 2007. She also received seven regional Emmy Awards for investigative reporting and writing and enterprise journalism, and two national Emmy Award nominations for investigative reporting. She has been honored with multiple Arizona AP Broadcasters Association Awards for investigative news and enterprise news, the First Amendment Award through the Society of Professional Journalists and the Television Award from the American College of Emergency Physicians.

Before joining KNXV-TV, Boudreau worked as an investigative reporter for WWMT, a CBS affiliate in Kalamazoo/Grand Rapids, Mich. She began her career at KWWL-TV, an NBC affiliate Waterloo, Iowa, as a one-man-band in Dubuque.

Boudreau received her bachelor’s degree from Loyola University in Chicago and a master’s degree in broadcast journalism from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism.

 

More: