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Michelle Miller
Michelle Miller
Michelle Miller
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Michelle Miller is a national correspondent for CBS News and currently serves as a co-host on CBS Saturday Morning.[1] She has also served as a substitute anchor on CBS Mornings and 48 Hours on ID.

Key Information

Early life

[edit]

Miller was born in Los Angeles, California. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism from Howard University and holds a Master of Science degree in urban studies from the University of New Orleans.[2]

Career

[edit]

Upon first arriving in New York City, Miller served as National Correspondent and substitute anchor for BET Nightly News.[citation needed]

In 1988, Miller served as an intern at Nightline and the Minneapolis Star Tribune. From 1989 to 1990, she wrote for the South Bay and Valley editions of the Los Angeles Times. From 1990 to 1993, she worked as an Assignment Editor, Producer and Reporter for Orange County Newschannel in Santa Ana, California. From 1993 to 1994, she was a reporter and Weekend Morning anchor at WIS-TV in Columbia, South Carolina.

From 1994 to 2003, Miller lived in New Orleans and worked as a reporter and anchor for WWL-TV, the CBS affiliate.[3] For three of those years, her broadcast, "The Early Edition" was the highest rated newscast in its time slot across the Nation. Also, between 1998 and 2001, Miller taught communications and broadcast journalism at Dillard University.[2]

In 2003, Miller had a cameo appearance as a reporter in the movie Runaway Jury based on the novel by John Grisham.[4]

In 2004, Miller joined CBS News.

Awards

[edit]

Miller received an Edward R. Murrow Award in 1998 and the Woman of the Year Award from the National Sports Foundation. She also received the National Association of Black Journalists Award of Excellence in 1997.[5] Miller received an honorary degree from St. Francis College upon reading her keynote address for the school's May commencement ceremony for the Class of 2019.[citation needed]

Author

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Miller is the author of a memoir, Belonging: A Daughter's Search for Identity Through Love and Loss, published in 2023.[6]

Personal life

[edit]

Miller's father, Dr. Ross Miller, MD, was the first physician to attend to Robert F. Kennedy at the site of his assassination on June 5, 1968.[7]

References

[edit]
[edit]
Revisions and contributorsEdit on WikipediaRead on Wikipedia

Michelle Miller

View on Grokipedia
from Grokipedia
Michelle Miller (born December 8, 1967) is an American and serving as a national correspondent for and co-host of since 2018. Raised in by her physician father after being placed for adoption at birth, Miller graduated with a B.A. in from in 1989 and later earned an M.A. in urban studies from the in 1997. Her career began as a reporter for the and local television stations before joining in 2005 as Northeast Bureau correspondent, where she has reported on events including the killings of , , and Michael Brown, the Emanuel AME Church massacre, and the . Miller's investigative work has garnered multiple accolades, including for a series on the National Guard's Youth Challenge Academy, two (one in 2019 for reporting on and another in 2023 for a story on an NYPD detective), the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award for the coverage, and an Award for a New Orleans daycare standoff report. In 2023, she published the memoir Belonging: A Daughter's Search for Identity Through Love and Loss, chronicling her efforts to locate her biological mother and navigate her biracial identity amid family loss. She is married to Marc H. Morial, president of the , and they have three children.

Early Life and Education

Upbringing and Family Background

Michelle Miller was born on December 8, 1967, in , , the product of an extramarital affair between her father, Dr. Ross Miller Jr., a trauma , and her Latina mother, a nurse who presented as white. Her mother abandoned her shortly after birth, concealing the pregnancy and Miller's existence from her own family due to racial prejudices against a child fathered by a man. Miller was raised primarily by her father and paternal grandmother, Beatrice "Bessie" Burson Miller, in South Central Los Angeles during the late 1960s and 1970s, a period of deep racial segregation in the city. Dr. Ross Miller, who was married to another woman and had other children who did not acknowledge Miller, provided financial stability through his medical practice; he was also Compton's first Black city councilman and the first physician to attend Senator Robert F. Kennedy following his assassination on June 5, 1968. Despite the father's involvement waning after Miller turned five, her early childhood lacked material deprivation, bolstered by her grandmother's resourcefulness and a supportive extended network. As part of Los Angeles's desegregation efforts, Miller was bused to schools in wealthier white neighborhoods, exposing her to interracial dynamics amid her biracial identity and absent maternal lineage. No full siblings are documented from her , though her father's other relatives maintained distance. This unconventional family structure, marked by secrecy and loss, shaped her lifelong quest for maternal connection and racial self-understanding, as detailed in her 2023 memoir Belonging.

Academic Achievements and Influences

Miller earned a degree in from in 1989. During her undergraduate studies, she participated in study abroad programs in and , which exposed her to international contexts relevant to global reporting. She later obtained a Master of Science degree in from the , focusing on urban policy and community dynamics that informed her subsequent journalistic examinations of social issues. These academic pursuits at institutions emphasizing practical skills and societal analysis laid the groundwork for her career in investigative and urban-focused , though specific mentors or intellectual influences from these programs remain undocumented in available records.

Journalism Career

Early Professional Roles

Following her graduation from Howard University in 1989 with a bachelor's degree in journalism, Miller began her career in print media, working as a reporter for the in and the Star Tribune in . She then transitioned to , serving as an editor, producer, and reporter at the Orange County News Channel in , from 1990 to 1993. In 1993, Miller joined WIS-TV, the affiliate in , where she worked as a reporter and weekend morning anchor until 1994. From 1994 to 2003, she served as a reporter and anchor at , the affiliate in New Orleans, , covering local news and producing investigative segments; during this decade-long tenure, she anchored the evening newscast Live at Five and, for three years, hosted The Miller Report, a program emphasizing in-depth reporting on community issues. Concurrently, from 1998 to 2001, she taught communications and courses at in New Orleans while maintaining her full-time role at . These local television positions honed her skills in on-air delivery, field reporting, and production, laying the groundwork for her national career.

Transition to National Broadcasting

Miller's transition to national broadcasting occurred in 2004 when she joined as a , following nearly a at , the affiliate in New Orleans, where she served as a reporter and weekend anchor from 1994 to 2003. Her prior roles at local outlets, including reporter positions at WIS-TV in (1993–1994), the Star Tribune in , and Orange County Newschannel in (1990–1993), provided foundational experience in broadcast and print journalism, covering regional stories that built her reporting skills. This move to the network level expanded her scope to national and international coverage, including presidential elections, issues, and breaking news, as she contributed to programs such as 48 Hours and the . In 2005, she advanced to northeast bureau correspondent, further solidifying her national presence. The affiliation with likely facilitated internal networking and visibility within , enabling the shift from local market demands—such as community-focused reporting in New Orleans—to the higher-stakes, broader-impact assignments characteristic of network journalism. Her entry into represented a culmination of persistent professional development, including a in urban studies from the , which complemented her background from . This period marked the beginning of her work on high-profile stories, distinguishing her from local peers by emphasizing investigative depth and on-air versatility.

Notable Reporting Assignments

Miller served as the first CBS News correspondent on the ground following the on December 14, 2012, where she reported on the heroism of teachers who protected students, including accounts of educators shielding children at the cost of their lives. Her subsequent coverage included efforts to reform gun laws and the protests, contributing to a team effort that earned the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award for . In reporting, Miller provided extensive on-scene coverage of protests and trials, including the 2012 and the 2013 trial, the 2014 shooting of Michael Brown in , and the 2020 killing of , encompassing his funeral in . She also reported on the 2015 Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church massacre in , where nine parishioners were killed, highlighting nationwide responses to racial violence. Internationally, Miller covered the refugee crisis in the , Nelson Mandela's life and commemorations, the 2011 wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton, and the 2023 coronation of King Charles III and . Domestically, her assignments included the 50th anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington and multiple U.S. presidential elections in 2004, 2008, 2012, and 2016. Other significant investigations featured her work on allegations against public figures and a 2019 48 Hours episode on that received a Gracie Award, as well as coverage of a New Orleans daycare standoff earning an Award. An Emmy-winning series examined the National Guard's Youth Challenge Academy program for at-risk youth.

On-Air Hosting and Contributions

Miller serves as a co-host of , a position she assumed in July 2018 alongside Anthony Mason and , where she covers diverse topics including national and international news, anchors segments, and conducts interviews. Her contributions to the program emphasize in-depth reporting on social issues, politics, and human interest stories, often drawing from her experience as a national correspondent. In addition to her hosting duties, Miller's reporting frequently appears across CBS platforms, including CBS Mornings, CBS Sunday Morning, and , where she provides analysis and field reports on major events such as presidential elections, protests, and crises. She has served as a substitute for the weekend editions of The and contributed segments to CBS News Up to the Minute. Miller anchors Eye on America, a CBS News Streaming series focused on underreported stories from across the , highlighting regional challenges and community resilience. She has also hosted special broadcasts, such as Black America Votes: The VP Choice in 2020, which examined voter perspectives on the vice presidential selection during the U.S. election cycle. Her work extends to 48 Hours, where she reports on investigative true-crime stories, including a 2019 segment on that earned a Gracie Award.

Awards and Recognition

Major Journalism Awards

Michelle Miller has earned multiple for her reporting, including a national Emmy in 2015 for a multi-platform series documenting high school dropouts' experiences in the National Guard's Youth Challenge Academy program, which highlighted efforts to rehabilitate at-risk youth through structured military-style training. She received another Emmy for related investigative work on the academy's impact. In recognition of her early career reporting, Miller was awarded the Edward R. Murrow Award by the Radio Television Digital News Association for coverage of a tense standoff at a New Orleans daycare center. As part of CBS News teams, she contributed to the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award-winning coverage of the 2012 in , praised for its depth in examining and community response. Miller secured from the Alliance for Women in Media, first in 2019 for her "48 Hours" segment "Live to Tell: Trafficked," which exposed the operations of child networks and survivor testimonies, and again in 2023 for "Katrina Brownlee: The Good Cop," profiling an NYPD detective's work against narcotics and violence. These honors underscore her focus on underreported social issues affecting vulnerable populations. She also received the ' Salute to Excellence Award for outstanding .

Impact of Honors on Career

Miller's early career honors, such as the 1998 Award for her coverage of a New Orleans day care center standoff while at local stations, provided initial validation of her reporting skills during her transition from print to broadcast roles at outlets like and WIS-TV. This recognition, from the Radio Television Digital News Association, highlighted her ability to handle high-stakes live events, aligning with her subsequent move to national platforms including ABC News' "" and eventual hiring by in 2004 as a correspondent. Upon joining CBS, Miller's Emmy Award for a series on the National Guard's Youth Challenge Academy underscored her investigative depth on social programs, contributing to her assignment to major national stories like the case and protests. The 2013 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award, received as part of the team for coverage, further elevated her profile in breaking news and public safety reporting, coinciding with expanded duties on "" and "48 Hours." These accolades, emphasizing excellence in crisis journalism, paralleled her progression to anchoring segments like "Eye On America" and increased on-air presence across platforms. Subsequent honors, including in 2019 for "48 Hours: Live to Tell" on child and in 2023 for NYPD detective profiles, reinforced her versatility in long-form and human-interest storytelling, directly following her 2018 appointment as co-host of (formerly : Saturday). Industry recognitions like the NABJ Salute to Excellence and 2023 ColorComm Circle Award have been cited in professional bios as markers of her sustained influence, correlating with high-profile assignments on reforms and international crises, though no sources explicitly attribute promotions solely to these honors. Recent civic tributes, such as the 2024 Key to the City of New York for contributions, reflect cumulative career impact but postdate key broadcasting advancements.

Literary Contributions

Publication of "Belonging"

"Belonging: A Daughter's Search for Identity Through Loss and Love" was released in on March 14, 2023, by Harper, an imprint of Publishers. The book carries 978-0-06-322043-0 and spans 320 pages. Co-written with editor Rosemarie Robotham, it marked Miller's debut as an author beyond . The publication followed Miller's public disclosures on platforms about her and search for her biological mother, which generated interest leading to the deal with . Initial sales propelled the title onto The New York Times Hardcover Nonfiction list in early 2023. A edition appeared in 2024.

Core Themes and Personal Narrative

In Belonging: A Daughter's Search for Identity Through Loss and , published on March 14, 2023, Michelle Miller recounts her lifelong quest to uncover her origins after being abandoned by her Chicana birth mother shortly after birth in 1968. Raised primarily by her adoptive white family in , Miller describes a childhood marked by emotional voids and questions about her racial heritage, as her light skin and ambiguous features led to frequent misidentifications and internal confusion about belonging to , or Latino communities. The narrative traces her adult efforts to locate her biological mother, a process intensified by professional triggers such as reporting on the 2020 murder of , which compelled her to examine her own experiences with racial ambiguity and societal rejection. Central themes revolve around the psychological impact of maternal abandonment and the construction of identity amid secrecy and loss, with Miller emphasizing how withheld family truths shaped her resilience and relationships. She explores biracial identity not as a fluid but as a concrete source of alienation, detailing encounters with —such as being profiled or overlooked in professional settings—and her deliberate navigation of these barriers to forge authentic connections, including through marriage and motherhood. Unlike narratives that romanticize , Miller portrays her eventual contact with her birth mother as fraught with unresolved pain, highlighting causal links between early abandonment and persistent trust issues, while underscoring surrogate maternal figures who provided provisional belonging. The book integrates her career as a lens for processing these themes, framing reporting on social injustices as a parallel pursuit of truth amid personal obscurity. Miller's personal arc prioritizes empirical self-examination over sentimentality, attributing her drive for belonging to biological imperatives and environmental influences rather than abstract ideologies, and she critiques institutional narratives on race that overlook agency in overcoming trauma. Through specific anecdotes—like DNA testing revelations and confrontational family dialogues—the memoir illustrates how confronting genetic and adoptive realities enabled her to redefine not by blood alone but by chosen accountability, though she acknowledges lingering voids from unhealed ruptures. This narrative avoids unsubstantiated optimism, grounding resolution in tangible actions such as and direct outreach, which yielded partial insights into her mother's circumstances but no full erasure of abandonment's scars.

Personal Life and Identity

Marriage and Family

Michelle Miller has been married to Marc H. Morial, former and current president and CEO of the , since September 11, 1999. The couple has three children and resides in . Their family life remains largely private, with Miller balancing her journalism career alongside domestic responsibilities. In November 2024, Miller and Morial were jointly honored with the key to for their contributions to civil rights and community leadership.

Exploration of Heritage and Abandonment

Michelle Miller was born in 1967 in to an African American father, a prominent and Compton City Council member, and a Chicana mother of immigrant descent whose family strongly disapproved of the interracial relationship. The union was extramarital, with her father married to another woman at the time, which compounded the social pressures of the era's in . Her mother, described as light-skinned and sometimes presenting as white, relinquished Miller at birth and concealed her existence from her own relatives, primarily due to the grandparents' prejudice against individuals, leading to the infant's placement in her father's care. Miller was subsequently raised in a stable, loving environment by her father and paternal grandmother, immersed in American culture but lacking any direct connection to her maternal Latina heritage or knowledge of her birth mother. This early abandonment shaped Miller's lifelong exploration of identity, prompting a decades-long personal investigation into her roots, which she chronicled in her 2023 memoir Belonging: A Daughter's Search for Identity Through Loss and Love. Using skills honed as a journalist, she pursued leads to locate her mother, confronting the intersections of racial denial, familial secrecy, and biracial ambiguity in mid-20th-century America. The process revealed suppressed Mexican ancestry on her mother's side, highlighting how racial hierarchies influenced personal decisions and erased lineages. Miller's account attributes the abandonment not to inherent maternal rejection but to external cultural and familial forces, including anti-Black bias within her mother's Mexican American community, which prioritized ethnic amid broader U.S. racial tensions. Her father's eventual departure from her life around age five further disrupted stability, though he had initially provided upbringing, underscoring themes of loss threading through both parental lines. This dual heritage—African American paternal lineage rooted in professional achievement and Compton's civic life, contrasted with a hidden Chicana maternal background—fueled Miller's reflective pursuit of wholeness, informed by DNA tracing and direct confrontations rather than unverified assumptions.

Public Views and Controversies

Perspectives on Race and Identity

Michelle Miller, a biracial American born in 1967 to a and a light-skinned Mexican-American mother, has publicly emphasized her identification as a woman, shaped by her upbringing in her 's family after her mother's abandonment at birth. Her , a trauma and civil rights activist, and paternal grandmother raised her in South Central Los Angeles amid segregation, while school busing for integration exposed her to predominantly white environments, fostering feelings of not fully belonging in either racial context. In her 2023 memoir Belonging: A Daughter's Search for Identity Through Loss and Love, Miller recounts her decades-long quest to locate her mother, attributing the abandonment to the mother's desire to maintain social advantages associated with appearing white and familial disapproval of the interracial relationship. She describes this heritage—encompassing African, European, and Native American ancestries—as complicating her sense of self, leading to self-perceptions of racial imposture in professional settings dominated by white colleagues. Miller has articulated that her identity is indelible and integral to her worldview, rejecting notions of journalistic detachment from personal racial experiences. In a 2023 , she stated, "I wasn’t born an 8lb. 9oz. . I was born a woman, a . I can no further discard my womanhood than you could discard your maleness," arguing that such identity cannot be set aside for perceived objectivity. This perspective informs her reporting on racial disparities, such as disproportionate mortality in communities of color, which she views as challenging neutral coverage due to inherent lived biases. Her commentary extends to broader racial dynamics in American society and politics, where she has criticized former President Trump's rhetoric as exacerbating divisions for electoral gain and dismissed right-wing opposition to as a "racial ." Miller advocates for unvarnished historical on race, drawing from her own experiences with busing and segregation to underscore persistent societal barriers, though she frames progress as incremental rather than transformative. These views, expressed through her book and media appearances, reflect a prioritizing racial authenticity over assimilation, amid critiques from some quarters that mainstream journalistic outlets like may amplify progressive interpretations of racial issues.

Political Commentary and Critiques

In her 2023 memoir Belonging: A Daughter's Search for Identity Through Loss and , Michelle Miller expressed criticism of former President Donald Trump's 2020 reelection strategy, accusing him of "intensifying racial conflict" to appeal to voters. This view frames political rhetoric around race as a deliberate tactic rather than organic discourse, intertwining her personal experiences with racial identity and broader societal divisions. Miller's commentary positions such actions as exacerbating tensions, drawing from her observations as a covering events like the protests in 2020, where she recorded personal reactions for assignments. Miller also detailed challenges to her professional neutrality during the , noting in Belonging the disproportionate death rates in communities of color and her perception of the Trump administration's response as inept, which strained her on-camera objectivity. She argued that true is illusory, advocating instead for truth and fairness guided by personal perspective, a stance she linked to earlier career advice to suppress her Black identity in newsrooms. On , Miller described it in the book as a "new racial " weaponized by right-wing commentators, reflecting her interpretation of debates over historical as politically motivated distortions rather than substantive policy disagreements. Critiques of Miller's political expressions have been limited, with some observers questioning the compatibility of her memoir's partisan-leaning opinions—such as those on Trump and COVID policy—with the impartiality expected of correspondents, given the network's documented left-leaning institutional biases in coverage of race and elections. Her emphasis on racial narratives in political events, including feminism's and systemic inequities, aligns with framings but has drawn minor pushback in public forums for potentially prioritizing identity over empirical , though no formal professional repercussions have been reported. These views, while personal, underscore tensions in between lived experience and detached reporting.

References

  1. https://www.cbsnews.com/team/michelle-miller/
  2. https://www.thehistorymakers.org/biography/michelle-miller
  3. https://www.michellemillerontv.com/belonging
  4. https://www.wbgo.org/show/wbgo-journal/2023-06-15/cbs-saturday-morning-co-host-michelle-millers-memoir-belonging-a-daughters-search-for-identity-through-love-and-loss-is-changing-lives
  5. https://njmonthly.com/articles/news/cbs-michelle-miller-search-belong/
  6. https://www.facebook.com/CBSMichelleMiller/photos/memoriesmonday-the-ancestors-who-raised-me-dr-ross-miller-and-his-mom-beatrice-b/3098635890148043/
  7. https://www.aarp.org/entertainment/books/michelle-miller-interview-2023/
  8. https://thehill.com/homenews/media/3906017-cbs-news-michelle-miller-grapples-with-race-politics-and-pain-in-new-memoir/
  9. https://www.facebook.com/CBSSundayMorning/posts/michelle-miller-co-host-of-cbs-saturday-morning-and-author-of-the-memoir-belongi/10166220037711337/
  10. https://dclibrary.libnet.info/event/8076392
  11. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/michelle-miller-on-a-lifetimes-search-for-a-sense-of-belonging/
  12. https://www.michellemillerontv.com/bio
  13. https://www.uno.edu/news/2022-06-27/cbs-news-journalist-michelle-miller-receive-2022-uno-homer-hitt-distinguished-alumni-award
  14. https://kids.kiddle.co/Michelle_Miller
  15. https://conference.iamempowered.com/users/michelle-miller
  16. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/teachers-risked-lost-their-lives-to-protect-sandy-hook-children/
  17. https://www.paramountpressexpress.com/cbs-news-and-stations/releases/?view=50548-cbs-news-correspondents-michelle-miller-and-dana-jacobson-to-join-anthony-mason-as-co-hosts-of-cbs-this-morning-saturday
  18. https://bookfest.tulane.edu/authors/michelle-miller
  19. https://www.rottentomatoes.com/celebrity/michelle_miller_3
  20. https://www.uno.edu/news/2022-05-23/award-winning-broadcast-journalist-and-uno-alumna-michelle-miller-dont-ever-let-your-naysayers-win
  21. https://conference.iamempowered.com/users/michelle-miller-0
  22. https://www.aspenideas.org/speakers/michelle-miller
  23. https://www.paramountpressexpress.com/cbs-news-and-stations/talent/?view=michelle-miller
  24. https://www.nyc.gov/office-of-the-mayor/news/841-24/mayor-adams-awards-key-the-city-new-york-gracie-mansion-conservancy-annual-gala-honorees
  25. https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/michelle-miller/belonging-daughter-search/
  26. https://www.publishersweekly.com/9780063220430
  27. https://www.nypl.org/research/research-catalog/bib/b23127460
  28. https://www.cbs.com/shows/video/4XO3obZXHg2A098drN_pqPv3cB4UNj7B/
  29. https://www.nytimes.com/books/best-sellers/2023/04/02/hardcover-nonfiction/
  30. https://www.harpercollins.com/products/belonging-michelle-miller
  31. https://www.amazon.com/Belonging-Daughters-Search-Identity-Through/dp/0063220431
  32. https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2354130/bio/
  33. https://www.facebook.com/CBSNews/posts/our-very-own-michelle-miller-and-her-husband-marc-morial-were-honored-with-the-k/968759561782555/
  34. https://defendernetwork.com/culture/arts-books/michelle-morialexplores-heritage-in-novel-belonging/
  35. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1sxv1vRXXA
  36. https://thegrio.com/podcasts/writing-black/renowned-journalist-michelle-miller-on-family-race-and-identity/
  37. https://www.mariashriversundaypaper.com/michelle-miller-search-for-belonging/
  38. https://www.houstonchronicle.com/lifestyle/article/cbs-news-michelle-miller-left-birth-18073729.php
  39. https://www.debraalfarone.com/blog/finding-belonging-award-winning-cbs-news-michelle-miller-on-the-secret-she-hid-most-of-her-life
  40. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UuW-zEb0LWY
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