by Mark Silva and updated
Another anchorman steps down.
Another anchorwoman steps up.
ABC News has announced that Charles Gibson, anchor of the evening World News since May 2006, will leave the chair at year's end and retire from the network.
Taking his place: Diane Sawyer (pictured here in an ABC News photo), anchor of ABC's Good Morning America. She will start in the evening news chair in January, the network says today.
That will place two seasoned newswomen in the anchor chairs of the leading broadcast networks, with Katie Couric at CBS News and now Sawyer, a veteran of CBS herself, at ABC. (Sawyer was the first female co-anchor of CBS' popular 60 Minutes.)
"It has not been an easy decision to make," Gibson said in an e-mail to the World News staff, ABC reports online. "This has been my professional home for almost 35 years. And I love this news department, and all who work in it, to the depths of my soul."
In an era of shrinking market-share for the old pillars of broadcast television, the network anchors have left their mark on recent political coverage nonetheless.
One who may bid Gibson a fond farewell is Sarah Palin, the former governor of Alaska, whose first network news interview after her selection as the Republican Party's nominee for vice president didn't go so well -- exposing the GOP nominee as perhaps not ready for a prime-time campaign. Palin had trouble telling Gibson, for instance, what she thought of "the Bush doctrine.''
"Do you agree with the Bush Doctrine?'' Gibson asked Palin.
"In what respect, Charlie?'' Palin replied.
"Well... what do you interpret it to be?'' Gibson asked.
"His world view,'' Palin said. "I believe that what President Bush has attempted to do is rid this world of Islamic extremism, terrorists who are hell bent on destroying our nation,'' she said. "There have been blunders along the way, though...
"The Bush doctrine, as I understand it, is that we have the right of anticipatory self-defense, that we have the right to a preemptive strike against any other country that we think is going to attack us,'' Gibson said. "Do you agree with that?''
"I agree that a president's job, when they swear in their oath to uphold our Constitution, their top priority is to defend the United States of America,'' Palin said.
This was the beginning of a series of network news interviews that exposed the governor's potential weaknesses. If Gibson had found the first opening, it was Couric, who has struggled at establishing her own foothold in the evening news ratings, who drew a surprising response from Palin in an Evening News interview.
"When it comes to establishing your world view,'' Couric asked the then-Alaska governor, "I was curious, what newspapers and magazines did you regularly read before you were tapped for this to stay informed and to understand the world?''
"I've read most of them, again with a great appreciation for the press, for the media,'' Palin said.
"What, specifically?'' Couric asked.
"Um, all of them, any of them that have been in front of me all these years.''
Gibson, 66, had planned to retire at the end of 2007 but was compelled to stay following the death of the network's Peter Jennings and a wartime injury of Bob Woodruff in 2006.
Gibson was successful at World News in an era of younger anchors. Yet NBC News' Brian Williams had passed him in the ratings and has been leading for a year, placing World News a solid second and Couric's broadcast third.
This is the line on the next network anchor, from ABC News:
Diane Sawyer joined ABC News in February 1989, as co-anchor of Primetime Live. In addition to her Primetime assignment, Sawyer was named co-anchor, with Charles Gibson, of Good Morning America in January 1999.
Since the premiere of Primetime in August 1989, 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.
Sawyer reported live from Ground Zero during the week of Sept. 11 and interviewed over 60 widows who gave birth after the World Trade Center disaster. She recently returned to Afghanistan to reunite the women profiled in her landmark 1996 report from behind the burqua, as one of the first Western journalists to expose the plight of women under Taliban rule. She also presented a groundbreaking two-hour special on gay adoption and the foster care system, featuring Rosie O'Donnell's personal story as a gay parent.
Her interviews include President George W. Bush in his first national interview; Saddam Hussein, the first Western television interview granted by the Iraqi president for nearly a decade; President Fidel Castro; Robert MacNamara's public apology on Vietnam; 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 and his then-wife Lisa Marie Presley's only interview; Michael J. Fox's interview about Parkinson's disease and the decision to leave his show; and former first lady Nancy Reagan on President Reagan's battle with Alzheimer's disease and their 50-year marriage. She also had the first interview at home with the Clintons after the 1992 presidential election.
Sawyer is also an award-winning investigative journalist, on topics ranging from biological weapons production in Russia to daycare abuse. She brought American viewers a shocking report on the warehousing of Russian children in state-run orphanages; a diary of life inside a maximum security prison for women, where Sawyer spent two days and nights; an investigation into the neglect and abuse at state-run institutions for the mentally retarded; and a landmark investigation into pharmacy prescription errors.
Other important investigations include undercover reports on food sanitation at the Food Lion grocery chain; uncovering the questionable business practices of three major televangelists; and neglect and doctor incompetence in the Veterans Administration Hospital in Cleveland. 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.
Sawyer's overseas reporting includes her coverage of the attempted coup in Moscow, when she made her way into the office of Boris Yeltsin 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 is one of the few Western journalists ever to report from North Korea on the famine and the government's attempt to keep it secret.
Prior to joining ABC News, Sawyer spent nine years at CBS News. She was the first woman to co-anchor 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, her many 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, 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.
Sawyer began her career in broadcasting in 1967 in Louisville, Ky., where she was a reporter for WLKY-TV until 1970.
A native of Glasgow, Ky., and raised in Louisville, Sawyer received a B.A. from Wellesley College in 1967 and completed a semester of law school before deciding on a career in broadcasting.
Comments
Nice try at your weekly Palin bashing, but the fact -- of which Gibson was unaware -- was that there were FOUR Bush doctrines. Palin knew that when she asked "what aspect?" Gibson did not. And apparently The Swamp doesn't either.
Posted by: McKinley | September 2, 2009 12:16 PM
Poor Uncle Walter and Great Uncle Ernie Pyle are rolling in their graves.
Another talking head grabs the mic...
Posted by: Kenny Bunkport | September 2, 2009 12:18 PM
So it was necessary to write ELEVEN paragraphs about Sarah Palin instead of a story about Diane Sawyer? Gee whiz, could your politics be more obvious!
Posted by: Searching for actual NEWS | September 2, 2009 12:26 PM
Why bring up Sarah Palin here? Gibson used a code word "Bush Doctrine," defined it like he wanted, and Palin did say that the President's first job was to defend the country.
Thus, bringing this up, while otherwise just reprinting the ABC Press Release, shows your bias.
Posted by: jack | September 2, 2009 12:26 PM
Good riddance! After that Palin interview, I NEVER watched Charlie again... Nothing more than a pompus uber- leftwing radical with a microphone...
Posted by: sigh | September 2, 2009 12:28 PM
Your stories are a waste of time to read. If I want to read Palin bashing there are more credible sites
Posted by: John | September 2, 2009 12:29 PM
Fabulous choice! Can't think of anyone more qualified. Charlie, you will, of course, be sorely missed.
But just wondering...will Republicans ever stop whining about the way poor Sarah Palin was treated? YOU allowed her to be interviewed by two brilliant journalists without knowing what she would say, and worse what little knowledge she had. That's a big shame on you Tsk, tsk, tsk.
Posted by: Moncie2 | September 2, 2009 12:36 PM
How did this turn into an article about Sarah Palin. Surely this guy did other notable things in his career? What is the point of this hatchet piece? Diane Sawyer v. Couric?
Posted by: James | September 2, 2009 12:39 PM
I agree with the Palin bashing. Where was the bio on Gibson? Oh, ABC didn't provide that and I guess it was too hard to look it up. I am not a fan of Palin, but this story went out of its way to bash her. And Diane Sawyer? She has turned into softball gushy which has been Katie Couric's downfall in trying to establish herself as an a news anchor.
Posted by: Sorry Charlie | September 2, 2009 12:40 PM
To Charlie,
When I my mother was sick from terminal cancer, you told a story on GMA about your mother dying and bieng on the street and nobody knowing that such a good person had just died. That story helped me a lot after my mother's death.
Enjoy your retirement!
Posted by: MTW48 | September 2, 2009 12:44 PM
You really believe that 3 different Bush Doctines were running through Sarah Palin's mind at the time that question was aked?
Really? I mean REALLY?
If that was the case then the appropriate response to the question of her opinion on the Bush Doctrine would be "which Bush doctrine" not "what aspect" the response "what aspect" suggests that she was only aware of one Bush Doctrine.
Problem for poor Sarah was she only became aware of the one doctrine during the interview.
Posted by: Betty | September 2, 2009 12:45 PM
Well, Mark, the reason Palin had a hard time answering that newspaper and magazine question is because she didn't want to hurt the feelings of most journalists. Just about all of them are worthless, including your newspaper. I used to read the Tribune from cover to cover, but now just skim most items because the reporting is so biased and there is very little news in most articles.
I used to be a regular TIME subscriber until that mag went left. Now I go to the internet where I can get news from the Corrupt Leftist Media as well as places like National Review Online, American Spectator and others.
Posted by: John D | September 2, 2009 12:47 PM
Charlie Gibson and Diane Sawyer are still alive? Who'd have known?
Amazing. And irrelevant to any besides their audience of maybe six.
Posted by: clyde | September 2, 2009 12:48 PM
It's a sad day when the person who reads the news that other people write changes... and that's news.
Posted by: QuietlyWatching777 | September 2, 2009 12:49 PM
It's time for Charlie to go. He use to be a news man, but in recent years has become nothing more than a left wing cheer leader. Diane is just more of the same!
Posted by: Tom | September 2, 2009 1:08 PM
Gibson is a right-wing hack and ABC News is Faux News lite.
Good riddance!
Posted by: David | September 2, 2009 1:12 PM
I agree....This Palin bashing takes too much away from my chances to bash democrats. I need to get it off my chest.....Socialist, Marxist, Leninist, Nazi, Racist, Muslim loving, and all around poo poo head. God I feel so much better.
Ps...In the spirit of Bruce and John D...how about a story about Palin and her bailing on the Alaska Family Council. Again!
Posted by: bill r. | September 2, 2009 1:12 PM
Diane Sawyer is a terrible newscaster. Whenever she interviews anyone, her questions are very leading. She is looking for the answers that she wants to hear, not giving the person being interviewed much room to answer it any other way.
TV news at any level is about looks and personality. It is rarely about talent in journalism.
Posted by: Just the Facts | September 2, 2009 1:17 PM
Well Who cares..
Posted by: steven boss | September 2, 2009 1:48 PM
Anyone who would suggest that Charlie Gibson is a eft wing cheerleader is a buffoon. I distinctly remember him asking Barack Obama in a debate whether he would still support higher taxes on the rich even though there was some solid evidence to show that such a measure would not, in the end, increase tax revenues. It absolutely stumped the candidate.
As for the Palin defenders, her interviews are always an embarassment, no matter the questioner.
Posted by: Scarzo | September 2, 2009 1:54 PM
Hmmm....So why didn't Palin say, "Well you know there are 4 parts to the Bush Doctrine Charlie...Let me tell ya about them (wink)"? Answer: Because the deer in the headlights look she gave indicated she had NO IDEA how to answer a straight forward question.
Posted by: janet | September 2, 2009 1:55 PM
You take a liberal out you put a liberal in...that's the main stream media Hokey-Pokey. Since I don't watch network news doesn't mean a thing to me. Advice to the reporter...try staying on subject.
Posted by: Guy Williams | September 2, 2009 1:56 PM
Ewwww! I cannot STAND Sawyer. She is very smirky and cozy, and she is a controller. I'll prove it. Download the video where she and her partners each share which cellphone ringtones they use. In the video, it is obvious that she is controlling her GMA co-hosts, on-the-air, where she scripts the dialogue. Oooh, I don't understand how her husband can live with such a controller. And, she cozied up to Elizabeth Smart, itching to hear about her boyfriend. Ewwww! Diane Sawyer, cozying up to Elizabeth Smart? Ewwwww! Yukky. Sorry, ABC, but you are making a very big mistake. Ewwww.
Posted by: todd | September 2, 2009 2:08 PM
Why the need to quote the Sarah Palin interviews? If I wanted text, I would write ABC and CBS. Get off your liberal high-horse and just report the facts! The bottom line is, all the major news networks have declining viewership because of anchors like Gibson and Couric, who do nothing but insert their own political spin into the telecast. And again, if you're all so convinced that Sarah Palin is an idiot, why the need to continually repeat your opinion when she's no longer an elected official. Pathetic. Maybe you should look for a job with Sawyer and Couric...you'd fit right in.
Posted by: Sara | September 2, 2009 2:16 PM
agree the Palin bashing unnecessary - Mark S. do you are about your reputation?
Posted by: robert | September 2, 2009 2:19 PM
Gibson is a pompous, smug, condescending jackass with little to mild talent and minimal journalism skills. He was lucky to last in the business where journalistic ethics are widely absent. He will not be missed and leaving the network will pep up ABC's news ratings.
Posted by: Hank Sellers | September 2, 2009 2:20 PM
Robert, hat's that you say?
Posted by: Mark Silva | September 2, 2009 2:25 PM
Hopefully she can stop wearing her 'heart on her sleve" and giving the doeful look everytime she disagrees with someone or wants to "seem" concerned, like she if every past spot.
Posted by: JohnF | September 2, 2009 2:52 PM
People, people. This is a state-run media program. WHO CARES!! Only misinformed drones watch this crap.
ABC=All Barack (or Bozo) Channel.
Posted by: JAC | September 2, 2009 2:57 PM
When do they consider when someone is to old to work.
Isn't that one of Obama's platforms (health care directives)?
She's old.
Or, at least she looks it.
Posted by: Jeff | September 2, 2009 3:19 PM
why does the press constantly have to remind us that the ex governor either doesn't read or can't read. we've already established a single figure estimate of her intellectual capability. just goes to show, again, you don't have to be smart to be political. an iq of 3 or 4 will suffice.
i must say abc's decision to post mrs. sawyer in mr. gibson's stead is surprising, considering that, just a few years ago, the network had planned to replace her aside mr. gibson with a younger, "vana" type journalist. the network only relented from its patronizing male sexist behavior after enough of us screamed loud enough. abc clearly planned to oust ms. sawyer at the time due to her age - in favor of a nice, young, voluptuous trophy, the dream of every male suffering through that middle age crisis of declining hormones.
Posted by: reddog | September 2, 2009 3:24 PM
Diane Sawyer - hahahahahaha.
That's the best ABC can do?
Posted by: vla | September 2, 2009 3:33 PM
I look forward to seeing Diane Sawyer in her new job.
Posted by: Pierre | September 2, 2009 3:33 PM
obviously the media is "managed" and "led" by the white male club. no woman with half a brain would screw up a business the way the press and media have been fouled up for who knows how many years. no woman leader is capable of such short sightedness or simple mindedness. the white male model this country has forever been running on since the start of time has forever yielded ignorance, arrogance, sexism, short-sightedness, and ego, that lovely male self-importance. former governor palin, with all of her flaws, is still more competent and 95 percent of the white male politicians in this country. the difference is ... the bar will always be lowered for caucasian males in society, to ensure their retention of power, for those who allow. not i.
Posted by: reddog | September 2, 2009 3:42 PM
If there were FOUR Bush Doctrines which Palin supposedly knew about, she could have just described aspects of ONE of them.
Gibson did what brilliant journalists do & that's to expose the truth. Palin is unfit to be mayor of a cracktwon & thanks to Gibson, helped save the USA from embarrassment.
Posted by: NoConservativePropaganda | September 2, 2009 3:48 PM
I like Charlie Gibson, though I stopped watching ABC news a while ago. I will NEVER watch Diane Sawyer. She is terrible. She asks the dumbest questions ever. Every time I hear her with her fake-sounding sincerity, I want to heave. Nice going, ABC. (Example of her questions: When John Ritter died of an undiagnosed heart defect, and all the news stories said it was sudden and undetected, she asked his wife, "Had he been ill?" NO, lady he hadn't been ill, all the news outlets said so! And, his wife said as much. You can't fix stupid.
Posted by: Nancy | September 2, 2009 4:02 PM
Any credibility that Gibson once had was lost when he did the Palin interview (or maybe it was just those stupid schoolmarm glasses that he wore).
Posted by: Sorry Charlie | September 2, 2009 4:41 PM
A choice between Sawyer and Couric.....ugh!
Posted by: John | September 2, 2009 5:25 PM
Nice try at your weekly Palin bashing, but the fact -- of which Gibson was unaware -- was that there were FOUR Bush doctrines.
Posted by: McKinley | September 2, 2009 12:16 PM
What are the FOUR doctrines?
I'm pretty sure Palin and most Americans, including GW, wasn't aware of FOUR Bush Doctrines. And since you didn't elaborate, I'm pretty sure you don't know them either. You must have heard Rush Windbag or some other right-wing blowhard say that Bush had FOUR doctrines.
Clearly she was grasping for straws. She was a deer caught in the headlights.
In any case, it doesn't matter.
This is about Charlie retiring and ABC handing the post over to Sawyer, who probably should have had it before Charlie but it took CBS to set the precedent.
If ABC wanted to really make headlines, they should have given the post to Palin. I think she'd do a great job and their ratings would go through the roof.
Posted by: Tell the Truth | September 2, 2009 5:44 PM
Thank God he is leaving. He was horrible.
Posted by: Gina | September 2, 2009 5:46 PM
Who would be a co-anchor I wonder?
Posted by: Family Law Attorney | September 2, 2009 6:06 PM
So what? No one watches these dinosaur programs anymore.
Posted by: Tea Party | September 2, 2009 7:13 PM
All you libs think the Palin interview with Gibson was the worst interview of anyone going for an elected executive branch, I jappen to recall a nameless senator who was just buried that gave the worse ever interview.
Posted by: Terry | September 2, 2009 7:50 PM
Enough about Palin! Why are any of us writing about her. At this point she is politically irrelevant! I propose a hiatus-at least until she does SOMETHING newsworthy (good or bad). Maybe when her book comes out....
Posted by: DHK | September 2, 2009 8:12 PM
Scarzo, get your head out of the sand. Gibson told the world Obama was the future of the democratic party before he was evene elected to the Illinois Senate. He's one of the reasons Obama became known nationally. Surely you can't be that stupid!
Posted by: Tom | September 2, 2009 8:20 PM
Goodbye Charlie -- Hello NBC News
Posted by: Diana | September 2, 2009 9:37 PM
Charlie Gibson will be greatly missed.
Posted by: Lisa | September 2, 2009 10:24 PM
Looks like ABC is mounting a serious challenge to CBS' last-place standing. It will be a real cat fight to see which of those two networks alienates the most viewers.
NBC should get down on its knees and thank the Fates that brought all of this about.
Posted by: RegularGuy | September 2, 2009 10:46 PM
She has many talents:
Not only is she blonde....
She also plays the viola!
Posted by: ornery | September 2, 2009 11:21 PM
Poor Charlie got plenty of grief in his feeble attempt to take Sarah Palin to the woodshed during his interview with her during the campaign. He was always a milktoast figure anyway. Brian Williams should be quaking in his $1,000 boots wondering what gal is going to send him packing.
Posted by: Oak Park Lefty | September 2, 2009 11:47 PM
Palin doesn't scare me. But those who seriously believe she was vice presidential material, scare me to no end...
Posted by: Joe | September 3, 2009 12:17 AM
It amazes us to know how little abc cares how biased their news staff are. If one of the 3 (abc, nbc ,cbs) were to report without left or right bias that network would own the market share and take back the viewers (mysef included) from the cable networks. I imagine ge cares about its bottom line. The ge ceo has to answer to share holders. There are a lot of us that are wondering why he lets this nonsense go on. Truly a poor choice as a replacement.
Posted by: Guardian | September 3, 2009 9:10 AM
Sawyer is a former right wing Republican Political Operative, having served for years in the Nixon and Ford Administrations. Obviously the corporate right wing media doesn't want you to know these things!
Posted by: The Anti-Bruce | September 3, 2009 9:18 AM
I love how the right wing crackpots are trying to spin a story about a newscaster into something that it's not. How unusual. It has to be that "liberal media". They are the ones who, contrary to the lies McKinley and other wing nuts, would try to spin, tell the truth--albeit belatedly.
There were not four Bush doctrines. No matter what the crackpots spin, Palin is dumb as a bag of rocks. Worse--she doesn't get that she doesn't get it.
Posted by: gibster | September 3, 2009 6:04 PM
Charlie will be missed but I think Diane will be a great replacement.
Posted by: Amy | September 4, 2009 2:12 PM