Diane Sawyer

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Lila Diane Sawyer (born December 22, 1945) is a television journalist for the U.S. network ABC News and co-anchor of ABC's Good Morning America with Robin Roberts. Among U.S. broadcasters, Diane Sawyer is among the most popular according to recent surveys, but was passed over for the top anchor jobs at both CBS News and ABC News, which hired Katie Couric and Charles Gibson, respectively.

Sawyer was born in Glasgow, Kentucky, but soon after her birth moved to Louisville with her parents. In 1967 she received her English degree at Wellesley College in Massachusetts. She served as a local TV news reporter for WLKY-TV in Louisville, Kentucky until 1970, then was hired by White House press secretary Ron Ziegler to serve in the administration of President Richard Nixon through his resignation in 1974, working on the transition team between Nixon and Gerald Ford in 1975, and assisting Nixon with his memoirs.

In 1978, she became a political correspondent for CBS, becoming a co-anchor of the CBS Morning News in 1981. In 1984, she became a correspondent for 60 Minutes, where she stayed for five years.

In 1989, she moved to ABC to co-anchor Primetime Live with Sam Donaldson. In 1999, Sawyer became the co-anchor of Good Morning America along with Charles Gibson.

Sawyer and Robbie Gordon received the 2004 George Polk Award for Television Reporting^[1] given annually by Long Island University to honor contributions to journalistic integrity and investigative reporting.

Contents 1 World News Tonight 2 Cultural references 3 Trivia 4 References 5 External link

[edit] World News Tonight

On May 23, 2006 it was announced that Charlie Gibson would assume the anchor chair for World News Tonight, scotching the "Sawyer WNT hosting" rumors for good. Charles Gibson departed from "GMA" on June 28, 2006.

It also rumored that Sawyer will leave the show when her contract ends in 2007, where she has been popular with viewers. Controversy and negative response from viewers has been generated by Sawyer's undercover investigative news reports about child abuse, and the specific instances in which Sawyer and the investigative team failed to report the documented abuse to child welfare authorities.

[edit] Cultural references

• In the comic strip Bloom County, a central character, Opus the penguin, had a long-time crush on Diane Sawyer.
• In the movie Drop Dead Gorgeous, Kirsten Dunst's character repeatedly says that she aspires to win a beauty pageant and become a news anchor, "just like Diane Sawyer."
• In the movie Something's Gotta Give, Jack Nicholson's character was at one time in his past engaged to Diane Sawyer.
• In the movie Little Black Book, Brittany Murphy's character has the career goal of working for Diane Sawyer, and ended up achieving the goal at the end of the movie.
• Diane was often mentioned as a rival of fictional news-magazine anchor Murphy Brown on the popular sitcom of the same name.
• MADtv had a skit where Diane Sawyer interviewed Whitney Houston
• SNL had a skit where Sam Donaldson calls Diane Sawyer a Bitch on Primetime Live to prove that the show was live.

[edit] Trivia

• Was at one time considered a strong suspect for being "Deep Throat" during the Watergate scandal. She was one of six people to request and receive a public denial from Bob Woodward^{[citation needed]}.
• Has been married to director Mike Nichols since April 29, 1988.
• Won the "America's Junior Miss for 1963" scholarship pageant as a representative from the State of Kentucky.

Preceded by: Kevin Newman and Lisa McRee

Good Morning America co-anchor 1999–present with Charles Gibson (from January 18, 1999 to June 28, 2006), and Robin Roberts starting in 2005

Succeeded by: Incumbent

[edit] References

1. ^ George Polk Awards for Journalism press release. Long Island University. Retrieved on November 22, 2006.

[edit] External link

• Diane Sawyer at the Notable Names Database
• Diane Sawyer at the Internet Movie Database
• Diane Sawyer Google group

Co-Anchors of Good Morning America
Hartman • Dussault • Hill • Lunden • McRee • Newman • Sawyer • Gibson • Roberts

60 Minutes Correspondents
Christiane Amanpour • Ed Bradley • Anderson Cooper • Katie Couric • Steve Kroft • Lara Logan • Scott Pelley • Dan Rather • Harry Reasoner • Morley Safer • Diane Sawyer • Bob Simon • Lesley Stahl • Mike Wallace