Mark Knoller, Former CBS News White House Correspondent, Dies at 73

Mark Knoller, a former White House correspondent for CBS News, has died. He was 73. 

CBS News announced Knoller died in Washington, D.C., and while a cause of death was not disclosed, he suffered from diabetes and had been in ill health. 

He emerged as a well-known White House correspondent during his time with CBS News from 1988 until 2020, when he departed the broadcaster. Knoller pivoted his journalism career in his final decade with CBS to Twitter (now known as X) as issues with his voice limited his radio broadcast capabilities. He became well-known on the platform, amassing almost 300,000 where he shared news pertaining to the White House. 

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

Born in Brooklyn, New York, on Feb. 20, 1952, Knoller graduated from New York University and swiftly began his career in media as an intern and copy boy at WNEW Radio. After eventually becoming a weekend reporter for the radio station, he went on to become a reporter for the Associated Press Radio Network in 1975.

He worked there for 13 years before being presented with an offer to become an assignment editor at the CBS News Washington Bureau in 1988. After not enjoying the role, CBS News pivoted and offered him the role of White House correspondent for CBS Radio, which notably was his dream job.

During his career as a radio correspondent with CBS, he covered the final year of George H.W. Bush’s term, both of Bill Clinton’s terms, George W. Bush, Barack Obama and the first term of President Donald Trump. 

“Mark Knoller defined what it means to chronicle and cover the White House,” said CBS News’ 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.”