Randall Pinkston
News correspondent
Randall Pinkston has been a New York-based CBS News correspondent since 1994. He was honored with a 1996 Emmy Award for Outstanding Investigative Journalism for CBS Reports: "Legacy of Shame." He served as the reporter on that program with anchor Dan Rather. The broadcast investigated the current reality of the lives of migrant farm workers and was inspired by the landmark 1960 CBS documentary "Harvest of Shame" with Edward R. Murrow.
Prior to that, Pinkston was based in Washington D.C. and, in addition to his reporting duties, contributed to the "Eye On America" series on the CBS Evening News with Dan Rather. While in Washington he spent two years at the White House covering President George Bush, including the President's trips to England, Spain, Greece, Turkey, Italy, the Netherlands, and the Far East. Pinkston broke the story of Bush's illness while dining with Prime Minister Miyazawa on CBS Radio, followed by comprehensive updates on CBS This Morning.
He joined CBS News in December 1990, one month before the start of the war in the Persian Gulf. Pinkston became a familiar fixture on CBS This Morning and CBS radio reporting on the war.
Prior to joining CBS News, Pinkston worked for 10 years at WCBS-TV, the CBS Owned station in New York. He was named its New Jersey correspondent in June 1989. He won an Emmy Award in 1989 for Outstanding Spot News for his role in WCBS-TV's coverage of a fire that killed five firemen in Hackensack, New Jersey, and another in 1990 for the Joel Steinberg child abuse verdict. With a keen interest in political affairs, Pinkston also covered the 1984 and '88 Jesse Jackson campaigns in New York, the l988 Democratic National Convention in Atlanta, the Florio-Courter gubernatorial campaign and New Jersey tax revolt (1989), the historic anti-abortion rally in Washington (1990) and the Bradley-Whitman Senatorial campaign (1990).
Pinkston came to WCBS-TV from WFSB-TV, the CBS affiliate in Hartford, Connecticut, where he held several posts, including reporter, anchor and producer of public affairs programs and specials. From 1974 to 1976, Pinkston worked for WJXT-TV, the CBS affiliate in Jacksonville, Florida, as urban affairs director, general assignment correspondent and producer of a daily public affairs program.
He began his broadcast journalism career at WLBT-TV Jackson, Mississippi. Prior to that, he worked as an announcer at WJDX-FM Radio in Jackson.
In addition to his two Emmy Awards, Pinkston has been honored by the New York State Associated Press Broadcasters Association, the Council of Churches of the City of New York and the Scripps-Howard Foundation for a series on the lack of government care for the mentally ill and physically handicapped. He received the Outstanding Journalist Award by Black Citizens of Fair Media in 1983 and the Public Service Award from the Greater New York Safety Council for his reporting on teen-age druk driving. These reports helped set the stage for changes in the state's drunk driving laws.
Pinkston attended Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, and participated in the Michele Clark Fellowship program at Columbia University. He was graduated from Millsaps College in Jackson, Mississippi with a Bachelor of Arts degree in history in 1973. He was also graduated from the University of Connecticut Law School with a J.D. degree in 1980.
Pinkston was born March 3 in Yazoo County, Mississippi.