Diane Sawyer

	Diane Sawyer
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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,

Diane Sawyer

was named co-anchor, with Charles Gibson, of "Good Morning America" in January 1999.

Diane Sawyer

has also served as co-anchor of ABC News "Turning Point," which premiered in March 1994.

Since the premiere of "PrimeTime" in August 1989,

Diane 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.

Diane Sawyer

reported extensively from Iraq and Kuwait during the 2003 war, conducting an exclusive interview with one of the main architects of Saddam Hussein's bio weapons program, Dr. Rihab Taha -- nicknamed "Dr. Germ" -- and taking a unique ride on a military plane with soldiers wounded in the war. After the war,

Diane Sawyer

held an exclusive interview with General Tommy Franks, head of U.S. Central Command.

During the week of September 11, 2001,

Diane Sawyer

reported live from Ground Zero and later interviewed more than 60 widows who gave birth after the World Trade Center disaster.

Diane Sawyer

also returned to Afghanistan to reunite the women profiled in a landmark 1996 report in which she was one of the first Western journalists to expose the plight of women under Taliban rule.

During the 2002-2003 season,

Diane Sawyer

conducted headline-making interviews with entertainers Jennifer Lopez, Whitney Houston, Lisa Marie Presley and the Dixie Chicks.

Diane Sawyer

also had an exclusive interview with Santee High School shooter Andy Williams, and presented an hour-long investigative report about the treatment of young women in the booming pornography industry. In 2002

Diane Sawyer

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.

Other interviews for

Diane Sawyer

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.

Diane Sawyer

also had the first interview at home with the Clintons after the 1992 presidential election.

Diane Sawyer

is also an award-winning investigative journalist, on topics ranging from biological weapons production in Russia to daycare abuse.

Diane Sawyer

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

Diane 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 for

Diane Sawyer

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, OH.

Diane 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.

Diane 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,

Diane Sawyer

traveled to Egypt to interview President Hosni Mubarak and to Amman, Jordan, where she interviewed King Hussein and his American-born wife, Queen Noor.

Diane Sawyer

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,

Diane Sawyer

spent nine years at CBS News.

Diane Sawyer

was the first woman to co-anchor "60 Minutes." Prior to that,

Diane Sawyer

co-anchored the "CBS Morning News" and was CBS News' State Department correspondent.

Diane Sawyer

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,

Diane Sawyer

's 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

Diane Sawyer

was inducted into the Television Academy of Fame.

Prior to joining CBS News,

Diane Sawyer

held several positions in the Nixon administration.

Diane Sawyer

was part of the Nixon-Ford transition team from 1974 to 1975.

Diane Sawyer

also assisted former President Nixon in the writing of his memoirs in 1974 and 1975.

Diane 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,

Diane Sawyer

received a BA from Wellesley College in 1967 and completed a semester of law school before deciding on a career in broadcasting.