Former Pittsburgh TV Reporter Takes Political Office

PITTSBURGH, PA — An award-winning Pittsburgh TV reporter and news director was sworn in Monday to a suburban community's governing body.

Jim Parsons, formerly of WTAE-TV, took the oath of office on Monday and is now an Oakmont councilman.

Parsons retired from the station in 2024 after being the station's news for eight years and a three-year tenure as assistant news director before that.

According to his station webpage, Parsons was an investigative reporter for WTAE from 1998 to2013. His series of investigative reports in 2007 about lavish spending by board members of the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency led to the resignation of the student loan agency’s >CEO and ultimately helped to bring about a new open records law in Pennsylvania, known as the Right to Know Act. The reporting on PHEAA was honored by Investigative Reporters and Editors, Inc. with the IRE Medal and by the University of Georgia with the George Foster Peabody Award.

As assistant new director, Parsons oversaw investigative reporting in 2015 about slow response times by local fire departments that led to a second Peabody Award for WTAE.