Russ Mitchell
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Russ Mitchell (born on March 25, 1960 in St. Louis, MO) is the news anchor of The Early Show on CBS. He became the first offical news anchor of the show in December 2006. He is also anchor of the Sunday edition of CBS Evening News. A graduate of University of Missouri, Russ joned CBS News in 1992 as co-anchor of Up to the Minute. He was a correspondent for Eye to Eye on CBS (1993-1995) and anchor of the CBS Sunday Night News (1995-1997). Before joining CBS News, he was an anchor for WFAA Dallas (1983-1985), reporter at KTVI St. Louis (1985-1987), and a weekend anchor and reporter for KMOV St. Louis (1987-1992). He lives in New York City.
Russ Mitchell has a wide fan base for his plain spoken style, sarcastic dry wit and his ability to tweak common network news conventions. He often makes side comments that indicate his clear displeasure wih typical network news puns.
On one occasion when his co-host Tracy Smith covered the divorce of a celebrity couple she ended with a statement from their publicist asking the public to respect their privacy. Russ Mitchell responded by sarcastically commenting "Which is exactly what we are doing now" demonstrating the absurdity of including such a request in a news report that clearly violated their wishes.
His willingness to gently ridicule the foibles of news programs, even his own, have prompted some of his fans to call him "Russ Mitchell: Speaker of the Truth."
Quotes:
"You will be told to cover stories which you know are ridiculous, but only you can protect your dignity."
