Byron Pitts
November 17, 2009
Byron Pitts
Byron Pitts, the chief national correspondent for The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric CBS News born on 21 October, 1960. Byron Pitts was diagnosed as functionally illiterate at 12 years old. Today he says that his success is a result of faith, dedication. He is a contributor to 60 Minutes. In 1982, he graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University. Pitts was the leading reporter during September 11th attacks and won national Emmy award for it. He is also recognized as covering reporter in Iraq war and to work under fire for the reporting of the fall of Sadam’s statue.
In Early Show Byron with co-anchor Harry Smith, he told how he drew inspiration for the title of his book. One Sunday morning when he was sitting in a church, he heard a phrase which resonated him,
“She says step out on nothing. And for people of faith, the suggestion was in difficult moments and struggle, we all have struggle. Step out on your faith,”
Then Pitts explained it,
“Non-believers may say you’re stepping out on nothing. But for those who believe in a force greater than themselves, it’s this notion you step out on your faith and it will sustain you difficult moments.”
The title of his book “Step Out on Nothing” highlights some facts of his life that how he struggled to make impossible to possible and in it he describes that his family especially his mother lives in faith.
According to him:
“My mother for most of her life wore a small necklace around her neck. It was a mustard seed encased in a plastic ball. And the belief was from the scripture that if you have faith in the mustard seed you can move mountains,”
Pitts also said:
“And my family, they’ve always had that kind of mustard seed faith that they can move mountains. They have move mountains out of my way certainly.”
About his early school life, he said:
“I was a picture reader early on. My mother tells me that basically I would read pictures. I was blessed with a good memory, I could memorize things. She would work hard with me. I would memorize sections of books,”
His mother is a star of his book. He says,
“Without question. She is a rock. And I think one of the points I hope to make in the book is to encourage people that all of us have struggles. But all of us, if we look hard enough, will find people who sustain us, who encourage us, who tell us that we can when we think we can’t,”
Now he is the winner of four Associated Press Awards and six regional Emmy Awards. He said in The Early Show that,
“If that were a state, it would be the second largest state in the United States,”
He said,
“If that were a state, it would be the second largest state in the United States and Thirty million people who struggle and have shame. And I can relate to that shame. And the book is to encourage people that you can do it.”