Russ
Mitchell, former anchor of the CBS Evening News weekend editions and
The Early Show on Saturday, and national correspondent for CBS News
Sunday Morning, the CBS Evening News, and The Early Show joined the
staff of 3News as Managing Editor Evening News and lead anchor of the 6
p.m. and 11 p.m. newscasts on January 16, 2012.
Mitchell
was born in St. Louis and accepted his first television job at age 17
as a nighttime switchboard operator at KTVI-TV. He graduated from the
University of Missouri, and began his professional career at KMBC in
Kansas City. Larger markets and bigger stations soon followed, then a
move to New York as the co-anchor of the overnight CBS News broadcast,
Up to the Minute. In 1993 he was named a correspondent for Eye-to-Eye
with Connie Chung. In 1995, Mitchell was assigned to the CBS Washington
bureau. In July of 1997, Mitchell was named co-anchor of CBS News
Saturday Morning and traveled extensively as a reporter for the CBS
Evening News with Dan Rather and 48 Hours. He covered the war in Bosnia,
went to the Democratic Republic of Congo and interviewed then President
Laurent Kabila, reported from Cuba, India, Indonesia and The Marshall
Islands.
Mr.
Mitchell was on the anchor desk with Dan Rather on September 11, 2001
and reported from Ground Zero and other parts of Manhattan on the days
and weeks that followed. Most recently, he anchored the live CBS Special
Report coverage of the capture and death of Osama Bin Laden on May 1,
2011.
Russ
has been honored with multiple local and national Emmys Awards. He has
received the National Association of Black Journalists Award, the
Society of Professional Journalists Sigma Delta Chi Award for his
coverage of the Elian Gonzales story, the New York Association of Black
Journalists Award for Best Documentary, and the Press Club of St. Louis
18th Annual Media Person of the Year Award.
Perhaps
not as well-known, but equally important to Mitchell is the 2007
Missouri Honor Medal. He received it for Distinguished Service in
Journalism from The University of Missouri School of Journalism, his
alma mater. He also returns there every summer to help with a journalism
workshop for high school students, a workshop he attended in 1977.