William "Bill" Plant, one of the longest-serving White House broadcast reporters in history, died Wednesday of respiratory complications, his family said. The award-winning CBS reporter was 84 and lives in Washington, DC.
Plante retired from CBS News as a senior White House correspondent in 2016 after 52 years in the news room. She served four tours in Vietnam - award-winning coverage of the fall of Saigon and Cambodia - the civil rights movement, covered every presidential election from 1968 to 2016, and anchored the "CBS Sunday Night News" from 1988 to 2016. in 1995.
"He was brilliant as a reporter and as a person," said Leslie Stahl of 60 Minutes, who covered the White House at Plant for 10 years. "There was nothing Bill did not excel in our profession: He was a gifted writer, a first-rate deadline setter and a master storyteller. He will be remembered for his reports from the White House lawn, for his constant voice of the President. He was responsive and kind-hearted."
Plan was a White House correspondent for CBS News for 35 years during the administrations of Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama, and covered the State Department during the administrations of George H.W. bush. He was known for his baritone voice, which he would question from afar.
During a long period when there were few White House press conferences, a frustrated plant yelled at George W. Bush about his lack of availability.
When the president announced the resignation of his adviser, Karl Rowe, in 2007 and began walking away without question, Plante said aloud, "If he's so smart, how did you lose Congress?"
Of the incident at the time, Plante said, "The question we ask should not depend on what the White House thinks the mood or tone of the event should be." "And the fact that they say 'no questions' or don't allow time for questions, it really has nothing to do with it. They don't need to be answered, but I think we should ask and reserve the right to proceed aggressively."
When he wasn't covering the White House, Plante generally talked about fine wines. He was known as one of Washington's most knowledgeable wine lovers, whose eccentric collection was considered one of the finest in the nation's capital. Plant soon became known as a servant of the White House Press Corps. He has occasionally reported for Vine for "CBS Early Show" and "CBS Sunday Morning".
Plant reported on the Vietnam War on four separate tours in 1964, 1967, 1971–1972 and 1975, earning two awards for his work. He was one of four CBS News correspondents to win an Emmy Award in 1972 for the five-part series that aired on "CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite" in 1972. He also won the Overseas Press Club Award for "Best Radio Spot News". Reports from Abroad" as part of the CBS News team covering the fall of Vietnam and Cambodia.
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