Why do we love Diane?

Blonde, former cheerleader, and beauty queen, not attributes one quickly associates with tough, hard-hitting journalist -- Diane Sawyer is all of these things. After a stint as weather girl at WLKY-TV, Louisville, Kentucky, she detoured from broadcasting and took a position on the staff of the Presidential Press Secretary in the Nixon White House. Though never confirmed, rumours have circulated over the years that Diane was "Deep Throat" the inside source cited in the Washington Post's Watergate coverage. Nixon would resign in 1974, Diane served on the Nixon/Ford transition team and became one of the president's closest confidants helping him write his memoirs.

As she tried to work her way back into broadcasting, her stint in the political arena was seen as a liability. CBS News finally took a chance on Diane and within three years she was co-anchoring the CBS Morning News. Her warmth, cheerful demeanor and reputation for skilled reporting helped the Morning News reach its best raitings in 30 years. Her meteoric rise continued when she became the first woman correspondent on the venerable 60 Minutes program. In 1989, Diane was wooed away to ABC and partnered with Sam Donaldson to create the award winning PrimeTime Live. In 1998, in a bid to catch their morning rival, NBC's Today, ABC had Diane and Charles Gibson temporarily take over Good Morning America, five years later the ratings have steadily climbed and GMA is closing in on Today. With intelligence, wit and drive, Diane moves easily between hard-hitting news exposés and celebrity interviews. Anyone who has seen her interview celebs like Russell Crowe or Ben Affleck knows that, in addition to her award-winning reporting accumen and invesitgative talents, Diane is a DOL 'til she dies!

Biography:

Born - December 22, 1945
Glasgow, Kentucky

Achievements:

• 1963 - Junior Miss
• 1967 - Graduated from Wellesley College
• 1970 - Joins the staff of Presidential Press Secretary Ron Ziegler
• 1974-75 - Served on the Nixon-Ford transition team
• 1978 - Joins CBS News as an entry-level reporter and within three years is co-anchor of the CBS Morning News
• 1984 - Becomes the first woman correspondent on 60 Minutes and earns six Emmy nominations for her work
• 1989 - PrimeTime Live debuts
• 1991-92 Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award (hidden-camera investigation of racial discrimination, which documented the different experiences of blacks and whites in America)
• 1991-92 - won top prize from the Investigative Reporters and Editors Association and a National Headliner Award for exposing the questionable business practices of three prominent televangelists
• 1991-92 - National Headliner Award, the Ohio State Award, and the Sigma Delta Chi Award (undercover investigation of day-care centers, which featured disturbing footage of unsanitary conditions and inattentive workers)
• 1993-94 - won top prize from the Investigative Reporters and Editors Association and a National Headliner Award for Food Lion grocery chain exposé
• 1994 - George Foster Peabody Award for "Rush to Read" PrimeTime Live
• 1997 - Inducted into the Television Academy of Fame
• 1998-99 - Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Silver Baton Award - "The Unwanted Children of Russia" - 20/20
• 1999 - Becomes co-host of ABC's Good Morning America

Additiional honors:

• IRTS Lifetime Achievement Award
• USC Distinguished Achievement in Journalism Award
• Nine Emmy Awards