CBS News Names Jim Axelrod Chief Investigative and Senior National Correspondent

By A.J. Katz 

A longtime CBS Newser is getting an additional title, effective today.

Jim Axelrod has been named CBS News’ chief investigative and senior national correspondent, it was announced today by CBS New president and senior ep Susan Zirinsky. Axelrod begins his new role immediately.

Most recently, Axelrod was the senior national correspondent for CBS News, reporting across CBS News programming, including for CBS This Morning, the CBS Evening News, CBS Sunday Morning, and other CBS broadcasts and platforms.

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Axelrod has seemingly done it all for CBS News since joining the network in 1996 as a Miami-based correspondent. He went on to serve in the network’s Dallas bureau for two years (1997-1999) and New York Bureau (1999-2006). He also served as CBS News’ chief White House correspondent (2006-2009) and was named a CBS News national correspondent in 2009. From 2012-2016, Axelrod was the anchor the CBS Saturday Evening News.

Axelrod has won a number of awards over his 23-year stint at the company, including a Peabody for his series on West Virginia’s opioid addiction crisis, a Polk Award for his work exposing a multi-billion dollar compounding pharmacy fraud, and a Murrow award for his reporting on the genetic testing industry.

Axelrod also won Emmy awards in 2002, 2014, and 2016.

Most recently, Axelrod’s investigation uncovered a new Medicare fraud that’s taking advantage of popular genetic tests, and potentially costing taxpayers millions of dollars.

In 2003, Axelrod was the first broadcast television journalist to report live from Baghdad’s Saddam International Airport right after it fell to U.S. troops. His live coverage of the U.S. Army firing artillery rounds into Iraqi positions was the first to be broadcast by a reporter embedded with ground troops engaged in combat in Iraq. Axelrod also covered the departure of U.S. troops from Iraq and was the last reporter to leave with the military in December 2011.

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