The world of political journalism lost a giant this past weekend with the death of Mark Knoller, the longtime CBS News correspondent and a fixture of the White House press corps. Knoller, who was 73, passed away in Washington, D.C., on Saturday, August 30, 2025, after a period of declining health marked by years of battling diabetes. His passing was confirmed by CBS News and met with an outpouring of tributes from colleagues, government officials, and journalists across the political spectrum.
Born in Brooklyn, New York, on February 20, 1952, Knoller’s path to the White House beat began in the city’s vibrant media scene. After graduating from New York University, he started his journalism career at the Associated Press in 1975. He quickly made a name for himself as a radio reporter, spending over 13 years at AP before joining CBS News in 1988. It was there, in the heart of the nation’s capital, that Knoller would cement his legacy as one of the most respected journalists of his era.
Knoller’s career at CBS was marked by a relentless dedication to factual reporting and a unique devotion to chronicling history. Initially, he ran the assignment desk at CBS’s Washington bureau—a critical, if often unsung, role that involved orchestrating coverage and deploying crews throughout the city. Yet, as colleagues recalled, Knoller’s heart was always with reporting. He lobbied to return to the field, eventually becoming the CBS White House radio correspondent, a position in which he would thrive for decades.
Over the course of his storied career, Knoller covered every presidential administration from Gerald Ford to Donald Trump. According to CBS News, he became the unofficial presidential archivist, meticulously logging every action, statement, and movement of the nation’s leaders. Starting in 1996, he began compiling exhaustive records—speeches, foreign and domestic travel, golf outings, pardons, vetoes, and more—into detailed text files and spreadsheets. As Knoller himself 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.”
His encyclopedic knowledge was legendary in Washington. The White House, fellow reporters, and even press secretaries regularly turned to Knoller for statistics and historical context. According to the Washingtonian, “Reporters, presidential staffers, and even press secretaries” relied on his detailed records. If anyone wanted to know how many times President Obama played basketball outside the White House (the answer, according to Knoller’s records, was 38), or how many speeches a president had delivered, Knoller had the answer—often in seconds. “President Obama made 1,818 speeches, remarks and public comments and the president used a prompter 689 times,” Knoller once shared, illustrating the depth of his archival work.
Knoller’s distinctive voice was instantly recognizable to anyone who followed White House news. Tom Cibrowski, president and executive editor of CBS News, called him “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.”
But it was his generosity of spirit and willingness to share knowledge that made Knoller beloved by colleagues. Chip Reid, CBS News correspondent, wrote, “This remarkably generous man shared [his database] with anyone who asked—reporters on deadline, historians, even White House aides filling gaps in their own records. He believed the public had a right to know.” Julie Pace, AP Executive Editor, echoed this sentiment, noting, “He carried out his work in the spirit of true public service, sharing his meticulous records of the presidency with any colleague who asked for a data point.”
Knoller’s work ethic was legendary. Mark Smith, a longtime AP White House correspondent, described him as “famous for keeping brutal hours” and being “almost always the last person in the filing center—and there again to open it in the morning.” He was known for his persistence and blunt, yet respectful, questioning style. “He was blunt and to the point, persistent but not hectoring,” Smith recalled. “He absolutely loved getting a rise or a laugh out of the president…but he also never accepted casual evasion.”
His fairness and objectivity set a standard in an era of increasing partisanship. Ari Fleischer, former White House press secretary under President George W. Bush, remembered Knoller as “the classic old school, get the story, get it right reporter.” Fleischer added, “Mark never betrayed any bias, any personal views. He was probably of the last generation of reporters who viewed their job as just telling the news with no inkling at all of their personal thoughts.” ABC’s Jonathan Karl called him a “reporter’s reporter,” adding, “I never had any clue what his political views were or even if he had any.”
Knoller’s influence extended beyond his reporting. He was a mentor and friend to many. CBS’s Norah O’Donnell described him as “simply the best, a legendary White House journalist who was a delight to be around. 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.” Major Garrett, another former CBS White House correspondent, said, “Mark Knoller defined what it means to chronicle and cover the White House.” Jim Axelrod added, “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.”
Knoller’s daily routine was as meticulous as his records. He reportedly spent about 90 minutes each workday combing through the president’s schedule, transcripts, and pool reports, distilling the day into a factual record and providing short explanations to put the tick-tock into context. Even as health challenges mounted, including voice issues that limited his broadcast work, Knoller adapted, turning to Twitter to continue sharing his insights and statistics with the world.
His personal quirks were as legendary as his professional standards. Colleagues fondly remembered his love of hamburgers—by some accounts, he rarely ordered anything else, no matter where in the world he traveled on assignment. “I bet in some secret place in some secret file there is a number of every hamburger and every place in the United States and abroad where and when one was consumed,” joked one former colleague.
After leaving CBS News in 2020, Knoller remained a respected voice in Washington. His legacy as the unofficial historian of the presidency endures, not just in the records he kept, but in the example he set for generations of reporters who followed him. As NBC’s Kelly O’Donnell put it, “Mark of CBS News created the most impressive archive of presidential facts that truly serves history. He shared his knowledge with kindness. Rest well my friend.”
In a city known for egos and power, Mark Knoller’s humanity, humor, and dedication stood out. His work, and the spirit in which he did it, will be missed by all who value the truth and the craft of journalism.
