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Diane Sawyer

Lily Diane Sawyer (born December 19, 1945) is a television reporter for ABC and co-anchor of its morning news show, Good Morning America. In 2001 she was named one of the 30 most powerful women in America by Ladies Home Journal. In 2007 she ranked 62nd on Forbes' "The World's 100 Most Powerful Women" list.

Background

Diane Sawyer was born Lila Diane Sawyer on December 22, 1945 in Glasgow, Kentucky. Soon after her birth, her family moved to Louisville, where her father, Erbon Powers "Tom" Sawyer, rose to local prominence as a politician and community leader. Her father was the Republican Jefferson County Judge/Executive when he was killed in a car accident on Louisville's Interstate 64 in 1969 while still in office. 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, and in 1967, she received a degree in English from Wellesley College in Massachusetts.

After briefly attending law school at the University of Louisville, Sawyer served as a local TV news reporter and "weather girl" for WLKY-TV in Louisville, Kentucky. In 1970, White House press secretary Ron Ziegler hired her to serve in the administration of President Richard Nixon. Sawyer stayed on through his resignation in 1974 and worked on the Nixon-Ford transition team in 1975, after which she decamped with the First Resignee to Californian exile and helped him write his memoirs. Years later, Sawyer would be suspected as the source of leaks of classified information (nicknamed "Deep Throat") to Bob Woodward during the Watergate scandal. However, she was one of six people to request and receive a public denial from Woodward.

In 1978, Sawyer joined CBS 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, where she remained for five years. In 1989, she moved to ABC to co-anchor Primetime Live with Sam Donaldson. In 1999, Sawyer returned to morning news, under a lucrative contract, as the co-anchor of Good Morning America, with Charles Gibson. The assignment was putatively temporary, but her success in the position, measured by a close in the gap with front-runner The Today Show, has kept her in the position far longer than anticipated.

Career timeline

1984–1989: 60 Minutes correspondent
February 1989–1998, 2000–present: Primetime Live co-anchor
1998–2000: 20/20 co-anchor
January 1999-present: Good Morning America co-anchor
1999–2000: ABC 2000 Today

Awards, memberships

Sawyer and segment producer Robbie Gordon received the 2004 George Polk Award for Television Reporting, given annually by Long Island University to honor contributions to journalistic integrity and investigative reporting, for “Fighting for Care,” an exposé on the disgraceful conditions, inadequate care and gross mismanagement that have persisted for years in Veterans Administration hospitals around the country. The report prompted hospital inspections as well as new supervision and training efforts.
Sawyer is a member of the CFR (Council on Foreign Relations).
Sawyer is a former board member of the Robin Hood Foundation, a charitable organization which attempts to allieviate problems caused by poverty in New York City, New York.

Cultural references

In the showcase comedyTrailer Park Boys, Rob Well's character "Ricky" kidnaps Alex Lifeson of Rush and tells him to play "Diane Sawyer" confusing it for Rush's hit song "Tom Sawyer".
In the courtroom drama Boston Legal, James Spader's character Alan Shore exclaims to his client, who was charged with cannibalism "Primetime wants you on! During sweeps. They want you to eat Diane Sawyer."
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 (played by Mo Collins) interviewed Whitney Houston, (played by Debra Wilson). Sawyer did conduct a well publicized interview with Houston in 2002.
Saturday Night Live had a skit where Sam Donaldson calls Diane Sawyer a bitch on Primetime Live to prove that the show was live.
In America (The Book), it is said that "There is no valid reason to appear with Diane Sawyer."
During the Animaniacs cartoon "Broadcast Nuisance", a caricature of Diane named DuAnne Sewer makes a brief appearance as co-anchor of NewsTime Live with the cartoon's central (non-Warner) character, Dan Anchorman (a caricature of Sam Donaldson).
In Scream 2 Cotton Weary attempts to entice Sidney Prescott into a TV interview, claiming 'I know you don't do the press, but it's Diane Sawyer.'
In the episode Cat Showdown on season one of Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Sabrina says something whilst in a mood and the news reporter Bob Gordon said, "Touchy, like a young Diane Sawyer!".

Famous interviews

Diane Sawyer has interviewed many important political figures, such as current U.S. President George W. Bush, former U.S. President and First Lady Bill and Hillary Clinton— first interview after the former's 1992 election to the U.S. Presidency, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad— February 12, 2007, one of the first interviews granted to an American, former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), First Female Speaker of the House, former Cuban President Fidel Castro, former U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, former First Lady Nancy Reagan, U.S. Admiral Hyman G. Rickover, and former Panamanian General Manuel Noriega.

From the entertainment world, Sawyer has interviewed singers Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown, Lisa Marie Presley and Michael Jackson, actor Michael J. Fox, comedian Ellen DeGeneres (after her coming-out), the Dixie Chicks, Britney Spears, Clay Aiken (twice), and actor Mel Gibson.

Sawyer has also interviewed celebrity criminals murderers Charles Manson, Patricia Krenwinkel and Leslie Van Houten - (1994), and Susan Atkins in (2002).