Mark Knoller, longtime CBS News correspondent, dies at 73

Longtime CBS News correspondent Mark Knoller has died at the age of 73.

He died in Washington, D.C., according to a close friend. The cause of death was not disclosed, but he suffered from diabetes and had been in ill health.

Knoller was, to put it simply, a legend. For decades, everyone in the White House press corps knew him as the unofficial presidential historian and statistician. 

His frustration over the lack of a central database of daily presidential actions inspired him to take upon himself the enormous burden of keeping meticulous records of every presidential act, movement, and utterance, single-handedly filling an immense void in American history.

As he once put it: “I keep a daily log of everything the president does. I keep a list of speeches. I keep a list of travel – foreign travel, domestic travel. A list of outings. A list of golf. A list of pardons, vetoes, states that he’s visited, states that he hasn’t visited. Every time he goes on vacation, every visit to Camp David.”

“Mark Knoller was the hardest-working and most prolific White House correspondent of a generation,” Tom Cibrowski, president and executive editor of CBS News, said. “Everyone in America knew his distinctive voice and his up-to-the-minute reporting across eight Presidential administrations.”

As a CBS Radio correspondent, Knoller worked extremely long hours, even without this self-imposed hardship. To keep his encyclopedic records up to date, he worked late into the evening nearly every day, departing the White House long after most of his colleagues had gone home.

And what did Knoller do with this hard-earned gold mine of statistics and numbers? In the extremely competitive world of journalism, you might think he would hoard it for his own use. But no. This remarkably generous man shared it with anyone who asked – reporters on deadline, historians, even White House aides filling gaps in their own administration’s records. He believed the public had a right to know.

Born Feb. 20, 1952, in Brooklyn, New York, he knew from a young age that he wanted to be a reporter. After graduating from New York University, he started his career as an intern and copy boy at WNEW Radio in New York, working his way up to weekend reporter. In 1975, he became a reporter at the Associated Press Radio Network, where he remained for 13 years.

In 1988, Knoller’s career took an unexpected turn. While covering a trip to Helsinki and Moscow with then-Secretary of State George Schultz, he and CBS News producer Susan Zirinsky chatted about his career. She told him the CBS News Washington Bureau was looking for a new assignment editor. 

“Why not take the plunge?” she asked him. So he did.

But after a few years, “alas, he was miserable,” Zirinsky recalls. He didn’t enjoy sending other people out to cover the news. He wanted to cover the news. So CBS News offered Knoller the position of White House correspondent for CBS Radio – his dream job, and a position in which he went on to win numerous prestigious journalism awards.

In his role, Knoller covered the last year of President George H.W. Bush’s term, both terms of Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and the first term of President Trump. He left CBS in 2020.

Over the last decade of Knoller’s time at CBS News, his career took another surprising turn. His voice had begun to fail, making it impossible for him to be a full-time radio correspondent. So Knoller reinvented himself. Twitter was in its early years and was quickly becoming a sensation, so Knoller jumped on the Twitter (now X) train. He began posting numerous times daily, sharing White House news, his famous facts and figures, and his entertaining witticisms with an audience that grew to 300,000 followers.

Former CBS News White House correspondents who worked closely with Knoller also offered their heartfelt admiration:

“Mark Knoller was simply the best, a legendary White House journalist who was a delight to be around,” said CBS News senior correspondent Norah O’Donnell. “His work was his life. He was kind, funny and always gracious in sharing his encyclopedic knowledge of the presidency. His CBS family adored him, and we will miss our friend.”

“Mark Knoller defined what it means to chronicle and cover the White House,” said chief White House correspondent Major Garrett. “Mark added value where others never could – myself included. Mark was the most devoted, tenacious and clear-eyed journalist I have ever had the honor of knowing. For as long as I live, I will count among my life’s greatest blessings that I was able to work alongside him.”

“As impressive as Mark Knoller’s sweep of knowledge about the White House and the presidency was – it was surpassed only by his generosity toward his many friends and colleagues…And he always answered with kindness, class, and a sincere desire to help,” said Jim Axelrod, chief correspondent and executive editor for CBS News’ “Eye on America” franchise. 

Mark wasn’t just a respected colleague, he was a dear friend. He helped me enormously with his knowledge of the White House, but the Mark I will always remember is the kind, witty, funny, friend with whom I spent many hours debating about one of his favorite topics: which James Bond movies, and actors, were the best and the worst.

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Chip Reid is a former CBS News national correspondent.

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