William Job "Bill" Stout (September 4, 1927 – December 1, 1989) was an American journalist and sometime actor, known for his radio and television broadcasting career with CBS News.

[3][4] Stout advocated racial justice in a college newspaper editorial,[5] and, in 1946, he represented UCLA in Prague at the founding meeting of the International Union of Students.

[6] Stout left UCLA in June 1947 at the age of 19 and obtained work at the rival paper, The Minneapolis Times, alongside freshman reporter Harry Reasoner who would later attain fame as a television commentator.

[7] In 1960, Stout left CBS for three years to work for rival KTLA inside an old Warner Bros. sound stage, under the same roof as Paramount Pictures.

Stout hosted a half-hour TV series, Line of Sight, in which he aired his commentaries on current news topics.

The Los Angeles Times later observed that Stout's changes of employment during his early years were probably due to the argumentative attitude he displayed to his superiors and peers.

In 1978 on his Perspectives segment, he began delivering gruff commentaries with a rumpled, balding appearance akin to actor Ed Asner portraying Lou Grant.

In 1978, Stout unwittingly contributed to the loss by Mervyn Dymally to Mike Curb in the race for Lieutenant Governor of California.

[9] As part of his commentary at KNXT, Stout regularly chose a person or entity as the winner of his "Golden Turkey of the Month."

Contrasting that sentiment with John Belushi's death by drug overdose, Stout awarded Judith the Golden Turkey, saying her comment was "an all-time low in widows' tributes".