Diane Sawyer

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Diane Sawyer
Sawyer in January 2004.
Born	Lila Diane Sawyer December 22, 1945 (1945-12-22) (age 64) Glasgow, Kentucky, United States
Education	Wellesley College, B.A., 1967
Occupation	-Television journalist (since 1978) -Literary assistant to U.S. President Richard Nixon (1974–1978) -White House press aide (1970–1974) -Television journalist (1967–1970)
Spouse(s)	Mike Nichols
Ethnicity	American
Salary	US$12–15 million[1]
Notable credit(s)	-CBS Morning News anchor (1981–1984) -60 Minutes correspondent (1984–1989) -Primetime Live anchor (since 1989) -Good Morning America anchor (1999–December 11, 2009) -ABC World News anchor (December 21, 2009-present)[2]
"Diane Sawyer Biography — Anchor, Good Morning America", at ABC News (dated April 26, 2007) Official website

Diane Sawyer (born December 22, 1945) is an American television journalist for the ABC News division of the ABC network. On December 21, 2009, she began anchoring and Managing Editoring,World News with Diane Sawyer, the network's flagship news program.

Until December 11, 2009, Sawyer was a long-time co-anchor of ABC News's morning news program, Good Morning America (GMA).

In 2001 she was named one of the thirty most-powerful women in America by the Ladies' Home Journal. In 2007 she ranked 62nd on "Forbes Magazine's List of The World's 100 Most Powerful Women".

Early life and education

Born Lila Diane Sawyer in Glasgow, Kentucky, Sawyer is the daughter of Jean W. (née Dunagan), an elementary school teacher, and Erbon Powers "Tom" Sawyer, a judge.^[3] Soon after her birth, her family moved to Louisville, Kentucky, where her father rose to local prominence as a Republican politician and community leader; he was Kentucky's Jefferson County Judge/Executive when he was killed in a car accident on Louisville's Interstate 64 in 1969. E. P. "Tom" Sawyer State Park, located in the Frey's Hill area of Louisville, is named in his honor.

Sawyer attended Seneca High School in the Buechel area of Louisville. In 1963, she won the "America's Junior Miss" scholarship pageant as a representative from the State of Kentucky.

In 1967, she received a bachelor of arts degree with a major in English from Wellesley College in Wellesley, Massachusetts. She attended one semester of law school at the University of Louisville before turning to journalism.

Career

Sawyer was a local television news reporter and weather girl for WLKY-TV in Louisville.^{[clarification needed]}

In 1970, White House Press Secretary Ron Ziegler hired her to serve in the administration of U.S. President Richard Nixon. Sawyer continued through Nixon's resignation from the presidency in 1974 and worked on the Nixon-Ford transition team in 1974–1975, after which she decamped with Nixon to California and helped him write his memoirs, published in 1978. She also helped prepare Nixon for his famous set of television interviews with journalist David Frost in 1977.^[4]

Years later, Sawyer would be suspected to be Deep Throat, the source of leaks of classified information to journalist Bob Woodward during the Watergate scandal. In 2005 Deep Throat was identified as W. Mark Felt but prior to that, Rabbi Baruch Korff, a longtime Nixon confidant and defender known as "Nixon's rabbi," said on his deathbed that he believed Sawyer was Deep Throat. Sawyer laughed it off, and she was one of six people to request and receive a public denial from Woodward.^[5][6]

In 1978, Sawyer joined CBS News as a political correspondent and became a co-anchor, with Bill Kurtis, of the CBS Morning News in 1981. In 1984, she became a correspondent for 60 Minutes, a CBS News investigative television newsmagazine; she remained for five years.

In 1989, she moved to ABC News to co-anchor Primetime Live, a newsmagazine, with Sam Donaldson. From 1998 to 2000, she would become a co-anchor for ABC's 20/20, also a newsmagazine, co-anchoring on Wednesdays with Donaldson and on Sundays with Barbara Walters.

In 1999, Sawyer returned to morning news, under a lucrative contract^{[citation needed]}, as the co-anchor of GMA with Charles Gibson. The assignment was putatively temporary, but her success in the position, measured by a close in the gap with front-runner Today, NBC News's morning program, sustained her in the position far longer than anticipated.

On September 2, 2009, she was announced as the successor to Gibson, who retired as ABC World News anchor on Friday, December 18, 2009. She left GMA on December 11, 2009, and was scheduled to become the ABC World News anchor in January 2010. However, on December 1, 2009, The New York Times reported that instead of moving to ABC World News in January 2010, Sawyer will start on December 21, 2009, three days after Gibson's departure .^[2] Along with Katie Couric of CBS News, two of the three network news anchors on broadcast television will be women.^[7]

Career timeline

• 1984–1989 — 60 Minutes correspondent^[8][9]
• 1989–1998; since 2000 — Primetime Live co-anchor^[8][9]
• 1998–2000 — 20/20 co-anchor^[9]
• January 1999–December 11, 2009 — Good Morning America co-anchor^[8]
• December 21, 2009 — ABC World News anchor and managing editor ^[2]

Notable interviews (selected)

^{[clarification needed]}

Sawyer has interviewed many political figures including U.S. Presidents George W. Bush, and Barack Obama. She conducted the first interview with U.S. President Bill Clinton and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton after his first election to the presidency in 1992.^[8]

On February 12, 2007, she interviewed Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Her interview^{[clarification needed]} with President of Iraq Saddam Hussein was his first Western television interview in a decade.

She has also interviewed:

Fidel Castro, President of Cuba Robert McNamara, U.S. Secretary of Defense Manuel Noriega, general and the military dictator of Panama from 1983 to 1989 Nancy Pelosi, the first female Speaker of the United States House of Representatives

Nancy Reagan, First Lady Hyman G. Rickover, U.S. Admiral Antonin Scalia, U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice

She was allowed to take a special tour of North Korea.^{[clarification needed]}

From the entertainment world, Sawyer has interviewed — especially as a host of GMA:

Clay Aiken, singer (interviewed twice) Bobby Brown, singer Ellen DeGeneres, comedienne (after DeGeneres came out as a lesbian) Dixie Chicks, country-music group Michael J. Fox, actor Mel Gibson, actor Whitney Houston, singer

Michael Jackson, singer Madonna, singer Roman Polanski, film director Lisa Marie Presley, singer–songwriter Rihanna, singer Britney Spears, singer

Sawyer also interviewed drug king pin Rayful Edmond III of Washington, D.C., in 1989 and once again in 1997 on 60 Minutes.^{[citation needed][clarification needed]}

Personal life

On April 29, 1988, she and Mike Nichols, a film director, were married; they have no children. Nichols has Daisy (born 1974), Max (born 1964), and Jenny (born 1977) from his three previous marriages. Sawyer had previously had relationships with Frank Gannon, a Nixon aide; and Richard Holbrooke, a U.S diplomat.^[10]

References

1. ^ Portini, Amanda (September 4, 2009). "Is Diane Sawyer a 'Newsmommy'? — The Future "World News Tonight" Anchor Has Faced Harsh Commentary Lately. But the Strangest Came from a Feminist". Salon.com. http://www.salon.com/mwt/broadsheet/feature/2009/09/04/diane_sawyer/index.html. Retrieved December 12, 2009. 
2. ^ ^{a b c} Stelter, Brian; Carter, Bill (December 1, 2009). "ABC Plans Low-Key Handoff for ‘World News’". Blog at The New York Times. http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/01/in-a-low-key-hand-off-abcs-gibson-to-depart-on-dec-11/. Retrieved December 12, 2009. 
3. ^^{[verification needed]}"Diane Sawyer Biography (1945?-)". filmreference.com. http://www.filmreference.com/film/38/Diane-Sawyer.html. Retrieved September 17, 2009. 
4. ^ Sherr, Lynn (December 6, 2008). "Diane Sawyer on Fact vs. Fiction in Frost/Nixon — The Good Morning America Host—Who Worked for Richard Nixon at the Time of His Interview with David Frost—Talks with The Daily Beast about Her Memories of Her Ex-Boss.". Blog at The Daily Beast. Accessed December 12, 2009.
5. ^^{[dead link]}Carlin, John (June 28, 1995). "Dying Rabbi 'Names' Watergate's 'Deep Throat'". FindArticles (The Independent). http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_19950628/ai_n13991211/pg_1?tag=artBody;col1. Retrieved January 10, 2009. 
6. ^ Staff writer (June 17, 2002). "Just Who is Deep Throat?". CNN. http://archives.cnn.com/2002/ALLPOLITICS/06/17/deep.throat.facts/. Retrieved December 12, 2009. 
7. ^^{[dead link]}Bauder, David (September 2, 2009). "Sawyer to Take Over as Anchor of ABC Evening News". The Associated Press via Yahoo! News. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090902/ap_on_en_tv/us_abc_gibson. Retrieved September 16, 2009. 
8. ^ ^{a b c d} Staff writer (April 26, 2007). "Diane Sawyer's Biography — Anchor, Good Morning America. ABC News. Accessed December 12, 2009.
9. ^ ^{a b c} Staff writer (undated). "Diane Sawyer". Internet Movie Database. Accessed December 12, 2009.
10. ^ Howard, Margo (November 5, 1984). "60 Minutes' Newest Correspondent, Diane Sawyer — It Doesn't Take America's No. 1 Ex-Weathergirl to Know That the Wind Is Blowing Onward and Upward for 60 Minutes' Newest Correspondent". People. http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20089065,00.html. Retrieved December 12, 2009. 

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Diane Sawyer

• "Diane Sawyer Biography — Anchor, Good Morning America", at ABC News, dated December 19, 2009. (Accessed December 21, 2009).
• Diane Sawyer at the Internet Movie Database

Links to related articles Preceded by Kevin Newman and Lisa McRee Good Morning America co-anchor January 18, 1999–December 11, 2009 with Charles Gibson (from January 18, 1999 to June 28, 2006), and Robin Roberts (from May 23, 2005 to December 11, 2009) Succeeded by George Stephanopoulos and Robin Roberts v • d • e 60 Minutes correspondents Current Anderson Cooper · Katie Couric · Steve Kroft · Lara Logan · Scott Pelley · Andy Rooney · Morley Safer · Bob Simon · Lesley Stahl · Mike Wallace Former Christiane Amanpour · Ed Bradley · Dan Rather · Harry Reasoner · Charlie Rose · Diane Sawyer · Meredith Vieira v • d • e Chronological listing of Anchors of ABC World News H. R. Baukhage · Jim Gibbons · Bryson Rash · Pauline Frederick · Gordon Fraser · Leo Cherne · John Daly · Don Goddard · John Daly · Bill Shadel · Bill Lawrence · Al Mann · John Cameron Swayze · Ron Cochran · Peter Jennings · Bob Young · Frank Reynolds · Howard K. Smith · Harry Reasoner · Barbara Walters · Frank Reynolds · Max Robinson · Peter Jennings · Bob Woodruff · Elizabeth Vargas · Charles Gibson · Diane Sawyer

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