Jim Axelrod

National Correspondent

(CBS)  Jim Axelrod, a national correspondent for CBS News, previously served as chief White House correspondent.

He has covered Campaign '04 and the Iraq War as an embedded reporter.

Axelrod moved to the CBS News bureau in New York in 1999, having been assigned to the bureaus in Dallas (1997-99) and Miami (1996-97) before that. He regularly reports for the CBS Evening News and other CBS News broadcasts.

Axelrod has covered many stories over the past few years, most notably the war in Iraq. He was one of CBS News' embedded correspondents and was recognized for being the first television journalist to report live from Saddam International Airport in Baghdad immediately after its takeover by the U.S. In addition, Axelrod's live report of the U.S. Army firing artillery rounds into Iraqi positions was the first to be broadcast from a reporter embedded with ground troops engaged in combat. He has also covered the invasion of Afghanistan, the war and refugee crisis in the Balkans, the hostage crisis in Peru, the Gianni Versace murder investigation and the erupting volcano in Montserrat, among other stories.

Before joining CBS News in 1996, he was a political reporter and substitute anchor at WRAL-TV, the CBS affiliate in Raleigh, N.C. (1993-96). Among many other stories, he reported on the ongoing tobacco wars, the 1994 American Airlines plane crash and the NAFTA hearings in Washington.

Axelrod was included in a group of CBS News correspondents who received a 2002 Emmy Award for the CBS Evening News coverage of the Washington, D.C. sniper siege.

Previously, Axelrod was a reporter and producer of the 11:00 PM news for WSTM-TV Syracuse, N.Y. (1990-93). He served as anchor and reporter at WUTR-TV Utica, N.Y. (1989-90). Axelrod began his career at WVII-TV Bangor, Maine in 1989.

He was born in New Brunswick, N.J. Axelrod was graduated from Cornell University in 1985 with a bachelor of arts degree in history and from Brown University in 1989 with a master of arts degree in history. He and his wife, Christina, live in Montclair, N.J., with their three children.