The News Sorority Read online

  Pentagon Papers, 55

  People, 158, 159, 411

  Peoples Temple mass suicide, 134–35

  Pepper, Guy, 108, 109, 117, 122

  Perlin, Brooks, 339

  Perot, Ross, 192

  Perris, Alan, 121, 122

  Peyronnin, Joe, 40, 140

  Pfizer, Beryl, 46, 57

  Phillips, Mark, 12–14, 15, 231, 232, 250, 398

  Pierpoint, Bob, 132, 133, 136

  Pollen, Bella, 15, 251, 254, 301, 309, 310–11, 312, 329, 397, 400–401

  Poznek, Nancy, 198–99

  Presley, Elvis, 158

  Presley, Lisa Marie, 168, 285

  Préval, René, 374

  Primetime, 23, 160–61, 163–64, 167–78, 259, 264, 354, 360, 375

  Quinn, Sally, 302, 379

  Qutb, Sayyid, 330

  Rachele, Sister, 252–53

  Radziwill, Anthony, 306, 336

  Rather, Dan, 40, 56, 131, 132, 136, 148, 169, 175, 176, 182, 293, 295–96, 337, 352, 410

  Reagan, Ronald, 136, 300

  Reasoner, Harry, 56, 110–11, 133, 169, 172

  Rheinhardt, Burt, 220

  Rice, Condoleezza, 283

  Richards, Ann, 283

  Richer, Mickey, 313

  Rihanna, 263

  Robensen, Stewart, 28

  Roberts, Deborah, 181

  Roberts, Robin, 291, 335–36, 370, 374, 418

  Robertson, Anna, 147, 267, 280, 287–88, 290–91, 297, 361

  Robertson, Mark, 6, 8, 151, 155, 156, 335, 336

  Robertson, Nic, 12, 13, 14, 228, 230, 237, 238, 240

  Roker, Al, 273

  Roque, Annette (Lauer), 272–73

  Rosen, Ira, 146–47, 164, 165, 167, 169, 170, 336, 360

  Ross, Brian, 370–71

  Ross, Shelley, 177–78, 258–61, 262, 263–64, 265–67, 270, 280, 281, 284–85, 286, 287, 289–90, 395

  Rossen, Ellen, 145

  Roth, Richard, 136

  Rothenberg, Laura, 267

  Rouhani, Hassan, 429

  Rountree, Martha, 390

  Rowland, Ken, 8, 43–45, 50

  Rubin, Darius John, 307, 308, 311, 312, 326, 328, 329, 388, 422–23

  Rubin, Jamie, 300–309, 326, 379, 423

  and Christiane’s work, 384–85

  marriage to Christiane, 15, 303–4, 309–11, 312

  meeting Christiane, 14, 300, 301–2

  Rudman, Dana, 124

  Rusesabagina, Paul, 254

  Russell, Lynne, 89, 92

  Russert, Tim, 125, 181, 268

  Rust, David, 224, 228, 229–30, 234, 235, 237–40, 243–45, 246

  Rwanda, Christiane in, 12, 253–54

  Sadat, Anwar, 80, 111

  Sadjadpour, Karim, 386

  Safer, Morley, 146, 349

  St. James, Aleta, 293

  Salant, Dick, 60, 61, 131

  Salvatore, Diane, 336

  Sanders, Marlene, 45, 48, 57–58, 156–58

  Sarajevo, Christiane in, 11, 230–35, 243–45

  Saturday Night Massacre, 62, 64

  Saudi Arabia:

  and Gulf War, 224–27

  Katie in, 287–88

  Savitch, Jessica, 118–19

  Sawyer, Diane, 3–10, 27–68, 131–78, 356–63

  and ABC, 105, 158–64, 169, 172, 177–78, 259–71, 284–93, 356, 368–78, 403, 414, 415, 431–33

  as America’s Junior Miss, 34–36, 53, 363

  awards to, 167, 168, 360, 361, 362, 432

  birth and childhood of, 27–29

  career trajectory of, 23, 63, 137, 160, 396, 434

  and CBS, 131–38, 139–44

  children as focus of specials, 360–63

  and competition, 262–72, 281–82, 284–87, 290–93, 356, 371, 374–75, 403, 407, 414–15, 424–25

  family background of, 5–7

  and Food Lion program, 167–68

  foreign travel of, 358–59, 361, 402–3

  and generosity, 267–68, 336, 337

  and GMA, 178, 197, 257, 259–71, 279–82, 284–93, 297, 334, 358–60, 368, 370, 402, 432

  and her father’s death, 7–8, 10, 23, 51, 64, 82

  high school years of, 29–36

  income of, 160, 169, 370, 415

  and interviews, 138–39, 146–47, 149, 168–69, 176–77, 192, 285–86, 328, 357–58, 371–73, 395, 396, 433

  and Nichols, see Nichols, Mike

  and Nixon, see Nixon, Richard M.

  on-air persona of, 44, 117, 140–41, 178, 262, 263, 266, 271, 285–86, 292, 360, 363, 370, 372–73, 377, 395, 402–3, 435

  personal traits of, 9–10, 22–23, 136–38, 140–43, 146, 174, 336–37, 402, 434–35

  and Primetime, 160–61, 163–64, 167–78, 259, 264, 354, 360, 375

  and retirement option, 423–24, 425, 431–33

  and 60 Minutes, 144–48, 158, 160, 161, 165, 264

  and star power, 159, 224, 360

  strategies of, 141–42, 162, 164, 170–71, 333–35, 369–70, 410

  as team player, 134–36, 173, 287

  at Wellesley, 9, 36–43

  at WLKY, 3, 4, 6, 8, 43–45, 49–50, 64

  work ethic of, 8–10, 16, 52, 65, 67, 134, 145, 148, 162, 166–67, 177, 262, 270, 290, 336–37, 359–60, 371, 434

  and World News Tonight, 333–35, 358

  Sawyer, Erbon Powers (father), 5–6, 7–8, 10, 27, 35, 51, 64, 82

  Sawyer, Jean Dunagan (mother), 5, 27, 52, 149, 415

  influence of, 6–7, 8, 28, 31, 35, 95, 177, 335, 378, 434

  Sawyer, Linda (sister), 5, 27, 28, 31, 32, 39, 41, 142

  Schieffer, Bob, 131, 175, 296, 342, 349, 356, 396

  Schonfeld, Reese, 89, 90, 107, 108, 109, 115, 116, 117, 119

  Schork, Kurt, 231–32, 308–9

  Schultz, Marilyn, 57

  Schwarzkopf, Norman, 192, 227

  Scott, Willard, 184, 198

  September 11 attacks, 277–82, 283, 288, 314, 317, 360

  Sevareid, Eric, 45, 56, 132

  Seven Days in May (documentary), 148

  Shadburne, Ed, 4, 44, 56

  Shadid, Anthony, 332n

  Shales, Tom, 112, 191, 393

  Shepard, Matthew, 209, 269, 436

  Sherwood, Ben, 163, 288, 290, 291, 356–57, 378–79, 415, 424, 432

  Shevlin, Pat, 415

  Shifke, Pat, 272, 355

  Shriver, Maria, 145

  Siebens, Jennifer, 132, 136, 145

  Siegel, Joel, 289–90

  Sierra Leone, child soldiers in, 314, 325

  Simon, Bob, 226, 235

  Simpson, Carole, 156–57

  Simpson, O. J., 168, 199, 246–47, 248, 265

  60 Minutes, 23

  and Christiane, 250, 252, 311, 312–14, 315–16, 318, 326

  and Diane, 144–48, 158, 160, 161, 165, 264

  and Katie, 339, 349, 408, 411

  and Memogate, 295–96

  Slaman, Dennis, 210

  Small, Bill, 50–51, 56, 60, 61, 62, 131–34, 136–37

  Smith, Howard K., 45

  Smith, Jim, 7, 8, 49, 52

  Snapp, Martin, 40–41, 53

  Socolow, Sandy, 40, 47, 61, 133, 135, 342, 346n, 347–48, 407

  Soroya, Princess (Iran), 71–72

  Spiceland, Flip, 90, 118, 215

  Stahl, Lesley, 60, 61–62, 63, 105, 131, 133, 147, 349

  Stand Up to Cancer, 21, 102, 211, 338–39

  Stanley, Alessandra, 291–92, 393, 434

  Steinem, Gloria, 47, 48, 100, 159

  Stelter, Brian, 368, 424–25

  Stephanopoulos, George, 268, 280, 383, 390, 416, 425, 433
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br />   Stewart, Jon, 343

  Sudan, Christiane in, 312–13, 321–22

  Sullenberger, Chesley Burnett III “Sully,” 366, 412

  Sweeney, Anne, 162, 378, 414, 426, 432

  Syria, atrocities in, 427–29

  Take Two, 109, 113, 120

  Taricani, Jim, 87–88

  Tartikoff, Brandon, 209, 210

  Tartikoff, Calla, 209

  Tartikoff, Lilly, 209–10

  Taylor, Bob, 44, 132

  Teasdale, Sara, “The Long Hill,” 33–34

  Te’O, Manti, 421

  Teresa, Mother, 328, 367

  Theron, Charlize, 289

  This Week, 382, 383, 390, 392–95, 396–97, 415–16, 424

  Thomas, Clarence, 191–92, 265

  Three Mile Island nuclear plant, 135

  Time, 140, 160

  Title IX, 60, 100–101, 111

  Tkach, Andrew, 252, 253, 305–6, 312–13, 314, 316, 318–21, 323, 324–25, 330, 381

  Today, 137, 432

  and Katie, 17, 18, 19, 22, 109–10, 122, 140, 181, 184–94, 197, 202, 203, 210, 257, 262–69, 271–81, 283–84, 286–87, 291–93, 295, 296, 339, 340–42, 413, 426

  and Pauley, 110, 111–13, 127–28, 140, 182–83

  and Walters, 46, 56, 57, 110–11, 112, 119, 133, 172

  Tonight Show, The, 16, 20, 22

  Toobin, Jeffrey, 48

  Touchet, Tom, 286, 291

  Trudeau, Garry, 112, 140

  Turco, Bucky, 280

  Turner, Ed, 119, 214, 220, 221

  Turner, Ted, 89, 90, 91, 107, 115, 117, 250, 391

  Turness, Deborah, 434

  20/20, 111, 144, 158, 159, 172, 177, 361–62, 432–33

  Tyndall, Andrew, 188–89, 268, 343, 372, 373, 377–78, 403, 431–32

  University of Rhode Island (URI), 82–84, 88, 213

  University of Virginia (UVA), 97–104

  Unseld, George, 30, 33, 34

  Vargas, Elizabeth, 181, 258, 333

  Vicario, Ginny, 49, 140, 436

  Vieira, Meredith, 145, 338

  Vietnam War, 53, 55, 229

  Vitez, Michael, 99, 102–3, 117

  von Essen, Jeanee, 214–16, 381

  Wald, Jonathan, 275, 277, 286

  Wald, Richard, 47, 56, 57, 106, 120, 157, 172, 176, 345, 392

  Walker, Dave, 90, 107, 113

  Walker, Wendy, 124, 179

  Wallace, Mike, 145, 146, 250, 294

  Walter, Amy, 212, 218, 219

  Walters, Barbara, 156, 157, 160

  and ABC, 172–75

  Audition (autobiography) by, 56

  and competition, 171–76, 264, 288

  as pioneer, 46, 56–58, 170, 172, 328, 341–42, 368

  retirement of, 421, 424, 425, 426, 434

  and Today, 46, 56, 57, 110–11, 112, 119, 133, 172

  and 20/20, 111, 158, 159, 172

  Warren, Gerry, 51–52, 54, 55, 63, 64, 65, 67

  Watergate, 58–59, 62, 63, 64, 67, 131–32, 138

  Watson, George, 107, 108

  Weber, Bruce, 191

  Weel, Alice, 46, 47

  Weinraub, Claire, 361–62

  Werner, Tom, 276, 339–40

  West, Betsy, 161, 162, 167

  Westin, Av, 55, 62, 110, 111, 133, 159, 400

  Westin, David, 165–66, 175, 177–78, 257, 260–61, 290, 291, 368–69, 378, 379, 410

  Whelihan, Bruce, 67

  Wilentz, Amy, 386

  Williams, Brian, 363, 392, 395–96, 403, 407, 424–25, 432, 433

  Winfrey, Oprah, 158, 290, 308, 312, 414, 419

  Winlock, Bob, 3

  WJAR Providence, 87–88, 216

  WLKY Louisville, 3, 4, 6, 8, 43–45, 49–50, 64, 132

  women:

  and ABC activism, 156–58

  vs. “any white male,” 407–36

  and careers, 39, 61, 195–96, 298–300, 328–29, 365, 433–36

  CBS dress code for, 60–61

  and CNN start-up, 89

  competition among, 171–76, 177, 262–72, 284–87, 403

  double standard for, 146–47, 175–76, 284, 299, 328, 351, 352, 370, 380, 395–96, 430, 434

  and eating disorders, 98, 119

  fair pay for, 365

  and human interest news, 158, 159, 168–69

  male envy of, 249–50, 399

  NBC Women’s Revolt, 57–58, 61

  in News Sorority, 23–24

  as pioneering network anchors, 45, 46, 47–48, 293, 295, 333, 343, 346, 368, 390, 407, 410–11, 412, 434

  and pregnancies, 140, 178, 187, 191, 304, 307

  sexual assault against, 399–400

  Supreme Court justice, 54

  and Title IX, 60, 100–101, 111

  in TV news, 57–58, 60, 61, 110, 133, 147, 158, 169–70, 188–90, 275, 283, 333, 341–42, 381–82

  women’s movement, 102, 103, 158

  beginning of, 38–39

  and class-action suit, 57–58

  NOW, 57, 60

  Second Wave feminism, 47, 100–101

  Woodruff, Bob, 333, 431

  Woodruff, Lee, 431

  Woods, Rose Mary, 66

  Woodward, Bob, 60

  World News Tonight, 57, 104, 169, 333–35

  World War II, 45–50

  WRC Washington, 123–25

  WTVJ Miami, 121–23

  Wynn, Steve, 141, 340

  Yahoo News, 430–31

  Yellin, Janet, 433

  Yeltsin, Boris, 148–49

  Yushchenko, Viktor, 326–27, 328

  Zakaria, Fareed, 381–82, 384, 388, 416, 424

  Zelman, Sam, 115, 119, 215, 426

  Ziegler, Ron, 51, 54, 55, 58, 65

  Zirinsky, Susan, 60, 62–63, 105, 106, 120, 131, 135, 148

  Zucker, Jeff, 189, 262, 287, 435

  and cancer, 201–2, 203, 205, 210, 274, 339

  and CNN, 420, 426

  and Jay’s cancer, 205, 206, 208

  and Katie, 185–86, 187, 188, 190, 193, 197, 264, 266, 337–38, 413, 417, 421, 426

  and NBC Entertainment, 275, 337, 413

  and Pauley, 127–28, 185

  PHOTOGRAPH CREDITS

  Image 1, Image 2: Seth Poppel Yearbook Library

  Image 3: The White House Photo Office

  Image 4, Image 5: © Bettmann/Corbis

  Image 6: Photo by Kevin Mazur Archive 1/WireImage

  Image 7, Image 17, Image 18: AP Photo/Richard Drew

  Image 8, Image 10: Photo by Ida Mae Astute/American Broadcasting Companies, Inc.

  Image 9: Photo by Jacob J. Kirk/U.S. Navy via Getty Images

  Image 13: AP Photo/Joseane Daher

  Image 14: © Deborah Feingold/Corbis

  Image 15: Photo by Dave Allocca/DMI/Time Life Pictures/Getty Images

  Image 16: AP Photo/The White House, William M. Vasta

  Image 19: Photo by CBS via Getty Images

  Image 20: Photo by Craig Blankenhorn/CBS via Getty Images

  Image 21: Courtesy of Diana Bellew

  Image 22: Thomas Haley/CNN

  Image 23: Photo by Arnaldo Magnani/Getty Images

  Image 24: AP Photo/Domenico Stinellis

  Image 25: Photo by CNN

  Image 26, Image 28: Photos by Andrew Tkach

  Image 27: AP Photo/Evan Agostini

  Image 29: Photo by ABC News via Getty Images

  Image 30: Shaul Schwarz/Reportage for CNN

  Even before she started elementary school, Lila Diane Sawyer was enrolled, by her mother, Jean, in a series of talent classes. Here, the little Louisville girl is artfully doing a Flamenco-style dance.

  Dia
ne’s crowning as America’s Junior Miss in 1963 looks like a lovely, jelled-in-aspic peak moment of a vanishing time. It was—and it was complex. Not long after winning the crown, she saw it as a liability in a changing culture—and at a northern Seven Sisters college. But the inspiration she received from the pagaent’s den mother, Catherine Marshall, would inspire her throughout her career.

  Diane’s employment with Richard Nixon, through most of the 1970s, during his presidency (here) and at San Clemente after his resignation, remains a part of her résumé that has long puzzled many. She admired him during his tenure (“What a considerable presidency it would have been without Watergate,” she later mused). After his disgrace, she stayed with him because, she said, “If I didn’t come through for him at a time when he needed me, I couldn’t live with myself.”

  In 1981, Diane moved from D.C. to New York to cohost CBS’s morning show, first with Charles Kuralt, here, and eventually with Bill Kurtis. Thus began her glamorous years, when powerful men had unabashed crushes on her and she was called “the thinking man’s Angie Dickinson.” Yet her extraordinary drive and work ethic were the opposite of what one would expect from an anointed golden girl.

  On the surface, the 1990s-long co-reign of Diane Sawyer and Barbara Walters as the twin queens of the ABC newsmagazine world was, as this early photo suggests, equitable and sisterly. But behind the scenes there was such heated competition over high-profile “gets,” a veteran producer had to be called in to referee. Barbara called Diane “That Girl” behind her back and bemoaned her connections. Diane disparaged Barbara’s street-fighter tactics.

  When Diane married Mike Nichols (here they are in 2005) in 1988, he corrected someone who asked him if this was his third marriage. “This is my fourth marriage,” he made clear. Diane, then forty-two, corrected the same interlocutor by saying, firmly, that this wasn’t her first marriage, “this is my only marriage.” Even people whose usual mode is cynicism and who find Diane challenging professionally are reduced to rapture when they talk about the love that the iconic director and Diane evidence for each other. She’s said she knew, “in the first ninety seconds” of meeting him—in the Concorde lounge—“that my life was changing,” that “he was the center of the dance.”

  When it was announced, in January 1999, that Diane was to become cohost of Good Morning America (with Charlie Gibson, here beside Diane in 2002), TV industry watchers—and viewers—were shocked. This elegant, “aspirational” woman who wasn’t a mom and seemed more elite than approachable was an odd fit for morning TV. But she took to it magnificently, and her short-term appointment lasted a highly successful decade, during which she expanded her skill set and allowed Methodist Diane of Kentucky to emerge from beneath the urbane, sophisticated overlay.