{"id":61006,"date":"2025-11-26T02:31:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-26T02:31:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/61006\/"},"modified":"2025-11-26T02:31:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T02:31:11","slug":"longtime-capitol-press-corps-reporter-columnist-bill-cotterell-passes-away","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/61006\/","title":{"rendered":"Longtime Capitol Press Corps reporter, columnist Bill Cotterell passes away"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) &#8211; A longtime member of Florida\u2019s Capitol press corps, who is a household name in Tallahassee, passed away this week.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Bill Cotterell died Monday at the age of 82. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Cotterell is in the Florida Newspaper Hall of Fame. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">He reported at the Florida Capitol for more than 40 years &#8211; 27 of them with the Tallahassee Democrat. <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"figure-img img-fluid mx-auto d-block\" alt=\"Veteran Tallahassee Democrat political reporter Bill Cotterell speaks at the Governor's...\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/RIG5XFUW6ZCWZHNX5HYOCCOVRY.jpg\" width=\"980\" height=\"673\" \/>Veteran Tallahassee Democrat political reporter Bill Cotterell speaks at the Governor&#8217;s Mansion at a party held in his name on March 19, 2012. After over 40 years of reporting, Cotterell announced his retirement, but he didn\u2019t stay on the sidelines for long. He began writing weekly columns that continued until his death.(Democrat File photo)<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cBill was a reporter\u2019s reporter. He was the ultimate straight arrow. Hard news reporter. A credit to the craft. That\u2019s what I\u2019ll remember,\u201d the paper\u2019s former Capitol Bureau Chief Dave Bruns said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Bruns hired Cotterell and spent years working elbow to elbow with him on the second floor of the Florida Press Center. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\"> \u201cHe covered presidential campaigns down to garbage pick up and everything in between and he always played it absolutely straight,\u201d Bruns said. \u201cIf Bill Cotterell had reported that the Martians had landed in the plaza between the Capitol, any governor in the last 40 years would have straightened his tie and rushed outside to say hello.\u201d <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"figure-img img-fluid mx-auto d-block\" alt=\"Bill Cotterell photographs Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney speaking with state...\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/QVDAIF7HKRCTRHOKJC4OVYY2WI.jpg\" width=\"980\" height=\"506\" \/>Bill Cotterell photographs Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney speaking with state senator John Thrasher in Tallahassee in 2011.(State Archives of Florida)<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Cotterell is perhaps best known for his reporting on state workers and his long-running Capital Curmudgeon column. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cHe had a near photographic memory for every moment of his 60 year career holding power to account with his wit, wisdom and a deeply rooted passion for Florida and the facts,\u201d said the Tallahassee Democrat\u2019s Executive Editor William Hatfield. \u201cTallahassee, Florida and the Republic are a better place because of his public service.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Funeral arrangements for Bill Cotterell have not yet been finalized. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">To keep up with the latest news as it develops, follow WCTV on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/WCTV.tv\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Facebook<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/wctvnews\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Instagram<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@WCTVEyewitnessNews\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">YouTube<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/nextdoor.com\/page\/wctv\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/nextdoor.com\/page\/wctv\/\" target=\"_blank\">Nextdoor<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/nextdoor.com\/page\/wctv\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/nextdoor.com\/page\/wctv\/\" target=\"_blank\"> <\/a>and <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WCTV\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">X<\/a> (<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WCTV\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Twitter<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Have a news tip or see an error? <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wctv.tv\/2025\/11\/26\/reporters-reporter-longtime-capitol-press-corps-reporter-columnist-bill-cotterell-passes-away\/mailto:news@wctv.tv?subject=Correction%20Needed\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Write to us here<\/a>. Please include the article\u2019s headline in your message.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Be the first to see all the biggest headlines by downloading the WCTV News app. Click <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wctv.tv\/2024\/12\/18\/download-free-wctv-mobile-streaming-apps-today\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a> to get started.<\/p>\n<p class=\"copyright |\">Copyright 2025 WCTV. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) &#8211; A longtime member of Florida\u2019s Capitol press corps, who is a household name in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61007,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[36207,36828,36827,36826,36825,4324,36833,36832,36829,36830,232,1216,234,36831,233],"class_list":["post-61006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tallahassee","tag-bill-cotterell","tag-bill-cotterell-passed-away","tag-bill-cotterell-tallahassee","tag-capitol-press-corps-reporter","tag-cotterell","tag-florida-capitol","tag-florida-capitol-press-corps","tag-florida-press-senter","tag-how-old-was-bill-cotterell","tag-journalism","tag-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee-democrat","tag-tallahassee-headlines","tag-tallahassee-journalism","tag-tallahassee-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61006"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61006\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}