Journalists

Photo Name
Talent Name
Ben Tracy

Ben Tracy is CBS News’ senior national and environmental correspondent based in Los Angeles. Tracy is a multi-faceted and award-winning journalist who has covered major stories overseas, in the nation’s capital and across the country. He reports for all CBS News platforms, including the CBS EVENING NEWS WITH NORAH O’DONNELL, CBS MORNINGS and CBS SUNDAY MORNING.

In his current role, Tracy has covered the escalating emergency of climate change and its environmental impacts. He has reported extensively on the historic drought ravaging the western U.S., the transition to electric vehicles and renewable energy, as well as issues of environmental justice. Tracy has also traveled to Iceland to report on the impact of climate change on the country’s glaciers and attempts to capture and store planet-warming carbon emissions.

Previously, Tracy was CBS News’ White House correspondent and covered the second half of the Trump administration, following every fast-moving development coming out of the executive branch. Before moving to Washington, Tracy was based in Beijing where he covered all of Asia for CBS News. His first assignment for the network had him covering the Western U.S. with a home base in Los Angeles.

Since joining the Network in 2008, Tracy has reported from 18 countries on five continents. He has been to North Korea three times and was the only western broadcast television correspondent to report from that country’s main nuclear testing site.

Tracy has covered many national and international stories including both impeachments of President Donald Trump; the 2020 presidential campaign and election; the historic summit meetings between President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Hanoi and Singapore; the rescue of 12 boys and their soccer coach from a cave in Thailand; the 2018 Winter Olympics in Japan; and the 2016 Summer Games in Rio. He also covered the massive wildfires in the Western U.S. and Canada; the 2014 hostage crisis in Sydney, Australia; the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan; and the royal wedding of Prince William and the former Kate Middleton in London. In 2016 Tracy traveled to Cuba to explore the increase in American tourism resulting from the lifting of travel restrictions.

Before joining CBS News, Tracy was a reporter for WCCO-TV in Minneapolis, where he was a member of the station’s investigative team, covering major stories, such as the methamphetamine epidemic and the collapse of the 35W bridge.

During that time, he also was a contributor to CBS News’ “Saturday Early Show,” to which he brought his signature “Good Question” segment, started at WCCO-TV, to a national audience.

Prior to joining WCCO-TV, Tracy worked as a reporter at WISN-TV Milwaukee and WBAY-TV Green Bay, Wisc.

He is the recipient of six Emmy Awards and two Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia Awards honoring excellence in broadcast news.

Tracy was born in St. Paul, Minn. He graduated from Marquette University with bachelor’s degrees in broadcast journalism and political science. He also earned a master’s degree in public service from Marquette University.