Peter Van Sant

Photo Credit: Cbs

Peter Van Sant was named a correspondent for 48 Hours in December 1998. Included among his many reports for the broadcast is an investigation of a Florida murder case that resulted in the arrest of the victim’s ex-husband. Van Sant also profiled actor Nick Nolte’s quest to find the fountain of youth.

Before that, he was a correspondent for Public Eye with Bryant Gumbel (1997-98). Van Sant was the first television journalist to report on the famine in North Korea, winning an Emmy Award for his report on the devastation of human starvation there. Van Sant was also with the first team to find and tape an indicted war criminal in Bosnia, a man accused of ordering the rape and murder of Muslim women. He won an Overseas Press Club award for that report.

In 1996, Van Sant was based in the Northeast bureau reporting for the CBS Evening News with Dan Rather. He received an Emmy Award for his report on the crisis in Albania for the Evening News. Van Sant also contributed to the primetime special, "Smithsonian Fantastic Journey," reporting from Africa on a study of lions that scientists hoped would lead to a cure for AIDS. And he reported from Namibia on efforts to save the cheetah.

Van Sant reported for the CBS News magazines Street Stories (1991-93) and America Tonight (1994). Among his many stories for both broadcasts was a profile of a chief living in the rainforest of Ecuador who is the son of U.S. missionaries.

Van Sant was assigned to the CBS News London bureau (1989-91). He was one of the first television journalists to cover the collapse of the Soviet empire, the reunification of Germany, the Gulf War and famine in Africa. He received an Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia University Award for coverage from inside the Soviet Union.

He joined CBS News in 1984 and was based in the Atlanta bureau for six years. During that time, he won an Emmy Award for his investigative report on the high number of medical helicopter crashes.

Before joining CBS News, he was a reporter at WFAA-TV Dallas (1982-84). He served as a weekend anchor and reporter at KOOL-TV Phoenix (1978-82), a general assignment reporter for KETV Omaha (1977-78) and for KCRG-TV Cedar Rapids (1976-77). He began his career in broadcast journalism in 1975 at KMVT-TV Twin Falls, Idaho.

Van Snt has received an RTNDA Edward R. Murrow Award, an Overseas Press Club Citation and an American Women in Radio and Television Award.

Born Feb. 21, 1953, in Seattle, Van Sant was graduated cum laude with a degree in communications from Washington State University in Pullman. He lives in Short Hills, N.J., with his wife. He has four sons and two daughters.

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