Andrea Mitchell

For nearly five decades, Andrea Mitchell, the legendary political and foreign affairs correspondent for NBC News, has been on the frontlines of covering the biggest stories of our times: eight White House administrations, twelve presidential races, and dozens of seismic global conflicts, from the fall of the Berlin Wall to 9/11 and the Iraq War. As a correspondent, anchor, and mentor, she has also repeatedly opened doors for women in journalism—and set the highest standard for tough but fair reporting and analysis at a time when journalists have come under unprecedented partisan attack as “enemies of the people.”

A native of suburban New York, Mitchell got her start in journalism working for the student radio station at the University of Pennsylvania. Hired as a copy editor at Philadelphia’s all-news KYW radio station, she was quickly promoted to covering city hall, where she so rattled Mayor Frank Rizzo that he tried to get her fired. Joining the Washington bureau of NBC News in 1978, Mitchell came to national attention with her on-the-ground reporting on the Jonestown Massacre and the nuclear power plant disaster at Three Mile Island.

In her first stint covering the White House, under Ronald Reagan, Mitchell clashed with the president’s chief of staff over her aggressive coverage of the Iran-Contra scandal. She served as NBC’s lead reporter on Capitol Hill for four years, then returned to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue as the Chief White House Correspondent in the early years of the Bill Clinton Administration—beginning a thirty-year run of covering the Clintons through the ups and downs of the Monica Lewinsky scandal, Hillary Clinton’s ill-fated presidential runs in 2008 and 2016, and Hillary’s numerous trips overseas as Secretary of State under Barack Obama.

In 1994, Mitchell was named NBC’s Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent—a role she has continued to fill ever since, even while covering presidential politics and anchoring her own daytime show on MSNBC, Andrea Mitchell Reports. In her foreign affairs role, she has conducted exclusive interviews with Fidel Castro and other world leaders, traveled to foreign capitals from Moscow to Beijing, and covered troops on the ground from Baghdad to Beirut.  In 2005, Mitchell’s doggedness was immortalized in footage of burly guards physically ejecting her from a press conference in Sudan after she persisted in asking the strongman president why he was allowing the genocide in the Darfur province to continue.

Over the years, Mitchell has received numerous awards for her remarkable career, including an Emmy for Lifetime Achievement in 2019. In her acceptance speech, she paid tribute to three fellow female pioneers in television journalism—Judy Woodruff of PBS Newshour, Leslie Stahl of 60 Minutes, and Cokie Roberts of NPR. In turn, two of today’s most prominent younger female anchors, Savannah Guthrie of the Today show and Kristen Welker of Meet the Press, testified to the invaluable support and guidance they had received from Andrea.

“Journalism is an enormous privilege, and a responsibility” Mitchell said earlier this year, as she concluded her final episode of Andrea Mitchell Reports after 17 years. “It has never been more important to do it well.”  For upholding that ethos of reportorial excellence—and passing it to the next generation of television journalists—Andrea Mitchell receives the Peabody Career Achievement Award for 2025.