WASHINGTON, D.C. — He had been in poor health and suffered from diabetes, but that didn’t stop him from continuing in an iconic role as the Helen Thomas of the internet generation, serving as a longtime member of the White House press corps.
Now, journalists, news consumers and politicians from across the Nation’s Capital are paying tribute to Mark Knoller.
His cause of death was not disclosed, his longtime place of work, CBS News, reported over the Labor Day holiday weekend.
Reflecting on his duties as a longtime chronicler of presidential administrations, Knoller once noted, “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.”
Commenting on his passing, CBS News President/Executive Editor Tom Cibrowski said, “Mark Knoller was the hardest-working and most prolific White House correspondent of a generation. Everyone in America knew his distinctive voice and his up-to-the-minute reporting across eight Presidential administrations.”
A native of Brooklyn, N.Y., Knoller began his career at Metromedia’s WNEW-AM & FM in New York. In 1975, he joined the Associated Press Radio Network, where he remained until 1988. That’s when a conversation with CBS News Producer Susan Zirinsky yielded an opportunity for Knoller to become Assignment Editor of the operation’s D.C. bureau.
He took the job, but he didn’t really enjoy it. Rather than have him depart, CBS News offered Knoller the role of White House correspondent. It was his dream job, and he’d cover the final year of President George H.W. Bush’s term; both terms of Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama; and the first term of President Trump.
Knoller left CBS in 2020.
