Pierre Thomas is a highly respected American journalist who has won two Emmy awards, the Dupont Award and a Peabody Award. Most recently serving as a senior justice correspondent at ABC news, the National Association of Black Journalists previously named him Journalist of the Year in 2012 for his accomplishments including breaking stories around the death of Osama bin Laden and for accurately reporting the shooting of U.S. Representative Gabby Giffords.
Thomas began his career in broadcasting as a student at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, where his curriculum including a stint working with the university’s radio station WVTF on an internship. His professional career began at The Roanoke Times and World-News before he took a job working for The Washington Post in 1987, where he was mentored by Ben Bradlee for around a decade. In 1997 he moved into television working for CNN before joining ABC News in 2000.
A year after joining ABC News, Thomas and the team won DuPont, Peabody and Emmy Awards for their coverage of the September 11th attacks. Thomas and the team then won a second Emmy eight years later for their coverage of President Obama’s inauguration. In 2012 Thomas was honoured with the title of Journalist of the Year by the National Association of Black Journalists, and three years later he won the prestigious Radio Television Digital News Association’s John F. Hogan Distinguished Service award, recognised for his “contributions to journalism and freedom of the press.”