Kalb Report - "Diane Sawyer: A Life in News"
by Allison Terry
 |
| Photo by Roshani Kothari
|
March 22, 2011--Every broadcast at ABC has a woman anchor, said Diane Sawyer during a discussion with Marvin Kalb Tuesday night at the National Press Club. She said this makes a big difference in women’s role the media, even though women worldwide struggle to make similar achievements.
The Kalb Report program, “Diane Sawyer: A Life in News,” marked the opening evening of the International Conference for Women Media Leaders sponsored by the International Women’s Media Foundation and George Washington University’s Global Media Institute.
Diane Sawyer is currently the anchor of ABC World News, making her the second female network news anchor in U.S. history. She began her tenure at World News in 2009 after being co-anchor of Good Morning America and co-anchor of Primetime, both for 10 years.
She also made history as the first female correspondent for 60 Minutes at CBS.
“I had no idea what I was walking into,” she said.
When she first started at 60 Minutes, Diane said she missed out on newsroom conversations because they often ended in the men’s room.
Kalb asked Sawyer if she thought women had fully arrived in the media business, as it seems to him that more women are covering the news than men.
“Women have arrived in many ways and in many venues,” Sawyer said. “The business side is not as accelerated as the on-air things that we do. There is a feeling at local stations that it is still a bit of a struggle.”
There is a connection between how many women work for a company and how successful it is, said Sawyer. “The more women you have in management and on the board you have a direct correlation to business success,” she said.
Throughout the interview, Sawyer discussed reporting in disaster zones, social media, Wikileaks, Nixon and why she loves being an anchor.
“As an anchor, I get to ask, ‘How do we wake up ourselves, our questions and our reporting?’” said Sawyer. “My job is to be as fearless as I can be. To say let’s do something fearless today.”
The Kalb Report is its 17th season and is presented by the George Washington University Global Media Institute, the Shorenstein Center at Harvard University and the National Press Club.
On Wednesday, conference delegates will discuss the “Global Report on Women in the News Media,” the long-awaited study that reveals the gender imbalance in top media positions worldwide.