Diane Sawyer on PrimeTime Thursday

		Saturday, Nov 21, 2009 10:36:12 AM

	PrimeTime Thursday

	Charles Gibson

	Diane Sawyer

	Cynthia McFadden

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Diane Sawyer
Co-anchor of PrimeTime Thursday

Diane Sawyer joined ABC News in February, 1989, as co-anchor of "PrimeTime Live," now known as "PrimeTime Thursday." In addition to her "PrimeTime" assignment, Ms. Sawyer was named co-anchor, with Charles Gibson, of "Good Morning America" in January, 1999. She has also served as co-anchor of ABC News' "Turning Point," which premiered in March, 1994.

Since the premiere of "PrimeTime" in August, 1989, Ms. Sawyer has traveled extensively across the United States and abroad to report on and investigate a wide range of topics and to interview a diverse group of newsmakers and personalities.

Ms. Sawyer has a long history of award-winning investigative reports, including her recent investigation of the warehousing of Russian Orphans in mental institutions, which won both the Dupont and the Robert F. Kennedy awards. Her investigations on topics ranging from biological weapons production in Russia to daycare abuse have won front-page headlines.

Ms. Sawyer's exclusive interviews include Vice President Al Gore's first campaign interview, discussing his real feelings about the Lewinsky scandal; Fidel Castro; Robert MacNamara's public apology on Vietnam; Sarah, Duchess of York, talking for the first time about her life in the Palace; Robert Downey, Jr., who addressed his drug addiction for the first time; Sammy "The Bull" Gravano, the convicted Mafia member who turned against the Gambino crime family and his boss, John Gotti; Ellen DeGeneres, who announced her homosexuality; ousted Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega's first interview from prison; Michael Jackson; Michael J. Fox on his life with Parkinson's and his decision to leave his television series; and former First Lady Nancy Reagan on her long marriage and her life now in the shadow of the President's Alzheimer's disease. Ms. Sawyer's interview with Saddam Hussein, conducted prior to the outbreak of the Gulf War, was the first Western television interview granted by the Iraqi President for nearly a decade.

Other investigative reports over the years have included a diary of life inside a maximum security prison for women, where Ms. Sawyer spent two nights in a cell with her own camera to interview the inmates; an investigation of charges of neglect and abuse at state-run institutions for the mentally retarded; a report documenting unsanitary conditions existing in fast-food restaurants; and a landmark investigation, in which "PrimeTime" sent 100 prescriptions to drugstores to show how many errors they made. Ms. Sawyer's revealing hidden-camera investigation of racial discrimination, which documented the different experiences of blacks and whites in America, also won the Grand Prize in the prestigious Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Awards.

Ms. Sawyer also conducted an undercover investigation into packaging and sanitary conditions at the Food Lion grocery chain, which won top prize from the Investigative Reporters and Editors Association and a National Headliner Award. In an unprecedented sequence, so did her investigation, during the 1991-92 season, in which she exposed the questionable business practices of three prominent televangelists -- W.V. Grant, Larry Lea and Robert Tilton. Her revealing investigation exposing patient neglect and doctor incompetence at a Veteran's Administration Hospital in Cleveland, Ohio, prompted the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to send a team to investigate conditions at the facility. It was also honored with an Investigative Reporters and Editors Award for Outstanding Investigative Reporting, as well as a Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Citation.

Ms. Sawyer's overseas reporting includes her coverage of the attempted coup in Moscow, when she made her way into the office of Boris Yeltsin in the Russian Parliament Building at the moment the attempted Soviet coup was at its crisis. During the Gulf War she traveled to Egypt to interview President Hosni Mubarak, and to Amman, Jordan, where she interviewed King Hussein and his American-born wife, Queen Noor. She also reported from Kuwait on the aftermath of the war. She travelled to Afghanistan during the civil war there to report on the treatment of Afghani women. She is one of the few Western journalists ever to make their way into North Korea, where she reported on the famine and the government's attempt to keep it secret.Prior to joining ABC News, Ms. Sawyer spent nine years at CBS News. She was a co-anchor for "60 Minutes." Prior to that she co-anchored the "CBS Morning News" and was CBS News' State Department correspondent.

She was podium correspondent for the 1988 Democratic and Republican National Conventions, and a floor correspondent for the 1984 Republican and Democratic National Conventions and for the 1980 Democratic Convention.

In addition to her Dupont Awards, Robert F. Kennedy awards and numerous Emmys, Ms. Sawyer's many other honors include the grand prize of the premier Investigative Reporters and Editors Association, two George Foster Peabody Awards for public service, an IRTS Lifetime Achievement Award, Broadcast Magazine Hall of Fame, and the USC Distinguished Achievement in Journalism Award. In 1997 she was inducted into the Television Academy of Fame.

Prior to joining CBS News, Ms. Sawyer held several positions in the Nixon administration. She was part of the Nixon-Ford transition team from 1974 to 1975. She also assisted former President Nixon in the writing of his memoirs in 1974 and 1975.

Ms. Sawyer began her career in broadcasting in 1967 in Louisville, Kentucky, where she was a reporter for WLKY-TV until 1970.

A native of Glasgow, Kentucky, and raised in Louisville, Ms. Sawyer received a BA from Wellesley College in 1967 and completed a semester of law school before deciding on a career in broadcasting.

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