Janet Langhart Cohen, chairman of Langhart Communications, is an Emmy-nominated journalist who began her television career on CBS in Chicago. During her 25-year career, Mrs. Cohen has appeared on ABC, CBS, NBC and BET; hosted ABC’s Good Day in Boston; covered special assignments for Entertainment Tonight; and producing several programs including On Capitol Hill with Janet Langhart. As an overseas correspondent, she covered news in Europe, Africa and the Middle East.
Throughout her career, Mrs. Cohen interviewed many major newsmakers and leaders of the 20th century. Among the prominent people she interviewed are President Bill Clinton, President Jimmy Carter, Margaret Thatcher, Rosa Parks, Mel Gibson, Bill Cosby, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Denzel Washington, Dan Rather and Larry King.
Janet Langhart Cohen also has worked as a columnist for the Boston Herald, U.S. News and World Report. She has been a judge for the White House Fellows Program and advised the Miss America Organization.
Mrs. Cohen is the wife of former Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen. She was known as “First Lady of the Pentagon,” due to her active and visible public role while her husband was in office. She spurred several initiatives aimed at morale and well-being of the Defense Department’s military and civilian employees — including the Military Family Forum, the Pentagon Pops concert series, the Secretary of Defense Annual Holiday Tour (an entertainment revue). Mrs. Cohen also created and hosted Special Assignment, a weekly television program that was broadcast globally over the Armed Forces Network from 1997-2001.
She wrote her first book, a memoir entitled, From Rage to Reason: My Life in Two Americas in 2004. In 2007, she and her husband coauthored Love in Black and White, a memoir about race, religion and the bonds they share over similar life circumstances and backgrounds.
Most recently, Mrs. Cohen has written a one-act play of an imagined conversation between Nazi child victim, Anne Frank, and child victim, Emmett Till of the Jim Crow southern United States. She also is actively involved in the provision of higher education for underprivileged children.
