Bill Whitaker

(CBS News) 

Bill Whitaker has been a CBS News correspondent based in Los Angeles since November 1992. He reports regularly for the "CBS Evening News" and other CBS News broadcasts.

Whitaker has covered issues along the U.S. - Mexico border including illegal immigration and the violence stemming from the illegal drug trade. Whitaker covered Republican Mitt Romney's 2008 presidential campaign. He covered the early stages of the War in Afghanistan from Kabul. He was the lead reporter covering the 2000 presidential campaign of George W. Bush. Whitaker has covered virtually all of the major breaking news events in the West in the past 16 years, including serving as CBS News' lead correspondent on both O.J. Simpson trials, the Heaven's Gate mass suicide, the Los Angeles earthquake and the El Nino weather phenomenon.

Prior to joining its Los Angeles bureau he served as CBS News' Tokyo correspondent (1989-92). From there, Whitaker covered stories throughout Asia, including the pro-democracy uprising in Tiananmen Square, military coup attempts in the Philippines and the enthronement of Japan's Emperor Akihito. He also covered the build-up to Desert Storm from Baghdad.

Before that, Whitaker was based in Atlanta (1985-98), from where he covered the 1988 presidential campaign of Michael Dukakis, among other stories. He won an Emmy for reports on the collapse of Jim and Tammy Bakker's television ministry. Whitaker joined CBS News as a reporter in November 1984.

Previously, Whitaker was a correspondent for WBTV-TV, the CBS affiliate in Charlotte, N.C. Whitaker's broadcast journalism career began at KQED-TV, San Francisco, that city's public television station, where he held various positions including producer, associate producer, and researcher/writer.

He was born in Philadelphia. Whitaker was graduated from Hobart and William Smith Colleges with a B.A. degree in American history and from Boston University with a master's degree in African-American studies. Whitaker also attended the University of California, Berkeley's Master of Journalism program. He was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Hobart and William Smith Colleges in 1997.

Whitaker lives with his wife, the former Teresita Conley, and their two children in Los Angeles.

[IntownWriter]

I knew Bill and Terry when she and I worked together at the local PBS station in Atlanta. Sadly, we lost tough when they moved to Japan. I'm always so pleased to see his reports, and - reading this bio - to learn that he and Terry are still together. Cheers, Marcia K.