Phil
Jones was a reporter-correspondent for CBS News for over three decades, reporting from Vietnam battlefields, covering presidential campaigns, the Watergate investigation, the Nixon resignation, and the impeachment trial of President Clinton. He was considered the dean of broadcast correspondents reporting on Congress when he covered that beat 1977-1989.
Jones grew up in Fairmount, Indiana. As a young boy growing up on a farm, he spent countless hours milking cows. But anytime he got a break from those duties, he “clocked in” at his makeshift radio station. Using chicken coop wire and bales of hay, Phil set up shop in his family’s barn and pretended he was an announcer reading the news. At that time, his audience was made up of feral cats and other farm animals – not exactly the demographic that excites advertisers.
While at Indiana University he was teamed with graduate student Dick Endberg on the new IU Sports Network broadcasts. His first fulltime news job was at WTHI-TV, Terre Haute. Jones later moved to WCCO-TV, Minneapolis, for 7 years, before joining CBS at its Atlanta bureau.
He died August 24, 2024, in Naples, Florida, at the age of 87.