Scott Pelley To Anchor ‘CBS Evening News’

Scott Pelley today was named anchor and managing editor of the CBS Evening News by Jeff Fager, CBS News chairman and 60 Minutes executive producer, and David Rhodes, the president of CBS News. The appointment to the broadcast, to be re-named the CBS Evening News With Scott Pelley, is effective on June 6.  Pelley will continue to report stories for 60 Minutes.

“Scott has it all.  He has the experience, the credibility and he is among the very best reporters ever to work at CBS News,” said Fager. “In more than two decades at CBS News, he has distinguished himself at every level, right up to his current role at 60 Minutes, where his work has been incomparable. We like to think of CBS News as the ‘reporter’s network’ and I can’t think of anybody in this business better suited for the anchor chair than Scott.”

Pelley has covered everything from breaking national news stories to politics to wars and served as the network’s chief White House correspondent. Since he brought that experience to 60 Minutes in 2004, half of all the major awards won by the broadcast have been for stories reported by Pelley.

Before becoming chief White House correspondent, Pelley was assigned to the 1992 presidential campaigns of Bill Clinton and Ross Perot. Prior to that, he served as a CBS News correspondent based in Dallas, where he covered many of the biggest domestic stories, including the Oklahoma City bombing and the trial of Timothy McVeigh. He also reported on the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, the Los Angeles Northridge earthquake, the Branch Davidian raid near Waco, Texas, Hurricanes Andrew and Hugo and NASA’s shuttle missions. Pelley joined CBS News as a reporter based in New York in 1989.

Prior to his time at CBS News, Pelley was a producer/reporter for WFAA Dallas/Fort Worth (1982-89), KXAS Dallas/Fort Worth (1978-81) and KSEL Lubbock, Texas (1975-78).  He began his journalism career at the age of 15 as a copyboy at the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal newspaper. Pelley attended journalism school at Texas Tech University.