Charles Gibson Leaving ABC News
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Longtime ABC newsman and ABC World News anchor Charles Gibson will be stepping down in January 2010 and leaving ABC. Good Morning America anchor Diane Sawyer will replace him on ABC World News. In an email sent to the World News staff, Gibson wrote
It has not been an easy decision to make. 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.
Before taking the evening anchor slot after the illness of Peter Jennings in 2005, Gibson was a GMA anchor. His long career at ABC includes stints on 20/20 and covering the House of Representatives and the White House as well as hosting presidential debates.
Gibson received criticism from the right for his interview of Sarah Palin–the first press she did after being nominated as John McCain’s running mate. But he insisted the question he asked her about the Bush Doctrine, he had planned to ask Joe Biden. And actually, John McCain, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton had bene asked the same questions by him in earlier debates and interviews prior to his perceived liberal bullying inquisition of the fragile doe-like Palin.
Diane Sawyer who replaces Gibson on ABC World News brings a wealth of news experience from her time at ABC. Before joining the network, she was hired by Nixon Press Secretary Ron Ziegler and worked for Richard Nixon, famously prepping him for his interviews with David Frost. After Nixon’s resignation, she stayed on with the Ford transition team the moved to California and helped the former president write his memoirs. It was rumored that Sawyer might be Watergate informant Deep Throat because her work with Nixon proved she had no gag reflex.
ABC News President David Westin said
that he and Gibson have been talking about the decision for several weeks and that Gibson "has persuaded me that this is both what he wants and what is best for him."
"I respect his decision, just as I respect the enormous contribution he has made to ABC News through the years," Westin said.
I hope he writes a book.
Diane Sawyer = Nixon’s final revenge.