Sharyl Attkisson

Investigative Correspondent, Washington, D.C.

(CBS)  Sharyl Attkisson was named CBS News' investigative correspondent focusing on government spending and taxpayer issues, primarily for the “Follow the Money” franchise of the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric, in August 2007.

Attkisson, who covered Capitol Hill since February 2006, has been a Washington-based correspondent for CBS News since January 1995. She was part of the CBS News team that received the RTNDA-Edward R. Murrow Award in 2005 for Overall Excellence. She also received an Emmy Award (2002) for Outstanding Investigative Journalism for her series of reports about the Red Cross. Attkisson has been recognized for her investigative reporting, uncovering theft, fraud and mismanagement within various companies and organizations including Firestone, Enron, the Red Cross and Los Alamos Weapons Laboratory, among others stories. She uncovered exclusive information about the dangers of prescription drugs and was the first to report that the FDA was investigating links between Viagra and blindness. Attkisson is also one of the few journalists to have flown in a B-52 on a combat mission in Kosovo and in an F-15 fighter jet Combat Air Patrol flight after Sept. 11.

Attkisson joined CBS News as a co-anchor of its overnight broadcast, Up To The Minute, in September 1993, for which she was based in New York. That year, she anchored CBS News' special week-long coverage from Houston’s Johnson Space Center of the space shuttle mission to repair the Hubble telescope, including a six-and-a-half-hour live broadcast the night of the first space walk (Dec. 4). In addition to her CBS News duties, Attkisson hosted "HealthWeek," a half-hour weekly news magazine on PBS (1996-2001).


Prior to joining CBS News, she was an anchor and correspondent for CNN (1990-93). Attkisson anchored its coverage of many major stories, including the Persian Gulf War, the Los Angeles riots and the standoff at the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas. She also interviewed live scores of prominent newsmakers, including Benjamin Netanyahu and Yasser Arafat.


Before that, Attkisson was an anchor and reporter at WTVT Tampa, Fla. (1986-90), WBNS-TV, the CBS affiliate in Columbus, Ohio (1985-86) and WTVX-TV Fort Pierce/West Palm Beach, Fla. (1982-85). She began her broadcast journalism career in 1982 as a reporter at WUFT-TV, the PBS station in Gainesville, Fla.


She has also received several other awards for her reporting and producing, including a New York Black Journalists Association public service award, a Mature Media National Award, a Florida Emmy Award, a Sigma Delta Chi Award and a Florida Communicator's Award. She also received, in 1997, the University of Florida’s Alumnae of Outstanding Achievement Award, honoring just 47 women who have attended the university since it opened. Attkisson served on the University’s Journalism College’s Advisory Board (1993-97) and was chairman in 1996. She co-authored Writing Right for Broadcast and Internet News (Allyn & Bacon, 2003), a textbook currently used by many college journalism programs.

Attkisson was born in Sarasota, Fla. She was graduated from the University of Florida in 1982 with a bachelor's degree in broadcast journalism. She and her husband live in Northern Virginia with their daughter. Attkisson is a second-degree black belt in TaeKwonDo.