Jason Bellini is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 journalist, and until August 2008 was the lead news anchor for CBS News on Logo

Logo (TV channel)

Logo is an American digital cable television channel owned by Viacom's MTV Networks division. Launched in June 2005, the channel's programs are geared towards the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender community...

. He received the 2006 "Journalist of the Year" award from the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association

National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association

The National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association is an American professional association dedicated to unbiased coverage of gay/lesbian issues in the media...

 (NLGJA).http://www.nlgja.org/news/03october06.html From 1998 to 2005, he worked as a CNN

CNN

Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...

 correspondent. He produced stories for CNN using an unconventional method: He hit the road on assignment with a hand-held digital camera and a laptop computer, which he used for editing. He often worked as a "one-man band," filing stories he produced himself from start to finish.

Professional career

1993: Bellini graduated from Chaparral High School in Scottsdale

Scottsdale, Arizona

Scottsdale is a city in the eastern part of Maricopa County, Arizona, United States, adjacent to Phoenix. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, as of 2010 the population of the city was 217,385...

, Arizona

Arizona

Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...

 where he was on the school Newspaper. He was a participant in the Hall of Friendship, an organization dedicated to cross cultural understanding between the Newspaper Staff and Foreign Exchange Students.

1997: Bellini earned a bachelor's degree in history from Georgetown University

Georgetown University

Georgetown University is a private, Jesuit, research university whose main campus is in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic university in the United States...

.

1998: Bellini began his career with CNN as a production assistant in the network's Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

, bureau.

1999: Bellini made his on-air debut with CNN Newsroom, now CNN Student News – CNN's news program for middle school and high school students. He also served as a field producer for CNN International, covering the NATO airstrikes against Yugoslavia

Yugoslavia

Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....

. One of his Kosovo stories achieved Medalist Status in the 1999 New York Festival Awards.

2000: Bellini worked for MTV

MTV

MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....

 where he served as part of that network's "street team" for MTV's Choose or Lose election coverage that followed the presidential candidates on the campaign trail during Election 2000. He was also a freelance writer for Washingtonpost.com and Channel One News.

2001: Bellini spent months in New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

 covering the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks

September 11, 2001 attacks

The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks (also referred to as September 11, September 11th or 9/119/11 is pronounced "nine eleven". The slash is not part of the pronunciation...

 as the crisis evolved into an international war on terrorism. He later traveled to Central Asia to report on the story from Afghanistan

Afghanistan

Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...

. He also covered the Kashmir

Kashmir

Kashmir is the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term Kashmir geographically denoted only the valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal mountain range...

 conflict from India. Bellini received a Gold medal from the New York Festivals for Jason's Journal: The Holy Land, a program he produced on the Israeli Palestinian conflict.

2003: Bellini reported as one of CNN's 18 embedded journalists during Operation Iraqi Freedom. He reported, often from the frontlines, from his position with the U.S. Marines. In February 2003, Bellini was part of the team of CNN correspondents and anchors that covered the breaking news story of the Space Shuttle Columbia

Space Shuttle Columbia

Space Shuttle Columbia was the first spaceworthy Space Shuttle in NASA's orbital fleet. First launched on the STS-1 mission, the first of the Space Shuttle program, it completed 27 missions before being destroyed during re-entry on February 1, 2003 near the end of its 28th, STS-107. All seven crew...

 tragedy.

2005: Bellini became the lead news anchor for CBS News on Logo.

2007: Bellini hosts two podcast

Podcast

A podcast is a series of digital media files that are released episodically and often downloaded through web syndication...

s available through the iTunes store

ITunes Store

The iTunes Store is a software-based online digital media store operated by Apple. Opening as the iTunes Music Store on April 28, 2003, with over 200,000 items to purchase, it is, as of April 2008, the number-one music vendor in the United States...

: CBS News on Logo and Jason Bellini's Here and Now, a self-described "vlog" (video blog).

Personal life

He is openly

Closeted

Closeted and in the closet are metaphors used to describe lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning and intersex people who have not disclosed their sexual orientation or gender identity and aspects thereof, including sexual identity and sexual behavior.-Background:In late 20th...

 gay

Gay

Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....

.

Jason is the older brother of CNN's Jarrett Bellini

Jarrett Bellini

Jarrett Bellini is an American writer and humorist.-Career:In December 1995, while attending Chaparral High School in Scottsdale, Arizona, Bellini began writing for the youth-oriented Alt. section of The Arizona Republic. Shortly after joining his home state's largest daily newspaper, he became a...

.