What to Expect From - And For - Diane Sawyer

Remember when an anchor stepping down was a huge deal? Tom Brokaw. Dan Rather. Peter Jennings. These names were huge pillars of the news ecosystem, and their departures were big stories — as well as the fraught issue of who had the gravitas, the experience, the journalistic, anchor-ly heft to step into their enormous shoes.

The last transition was just a few years ago, but oh how things have changed. The news that Charlie Gibson is leaving ABC's World News after only a few years in the top spot is definitely news, but is shaking no foundations. It's also not at all surprising who is replacing him: Diane Sawyer.

And why should it? Sawyer's got a track record a mile long. She's an accomplished journalist, well-known to ABC viewers over the years, a longtime partner of Gibson and equal to him in stature at the network, as well as in the upper echelons of that news ecosystem.

Well, for one thing, Sawyer's a woman.

A woman!

Remember when that was a big deal? Cast your mind back to 2006. Katie Couric had just been announced as the successor to Dan Rather (or, really, Bob Schieffer), and the entire media community was in a tizzy. What would she wear? Would her hairstyle change? Would we still get to see those famous legs? I'm serious; this was the subject of legitimate debate in legitimate news outlets. The coverage of Couric's ascension to the top spot at CBS, at its core, was about how viewers would react to a pretty, perky woman delivering their nightly half-hour news round-up.

Over at ABC, Sawyer was not impervious to that trend. The spring of 2005 had seen a spate of Katie-vs.-Diane stories over the GMA/Today Show ratings, and after Bob Woodruff's terrible accident in Iraq ended the pairing of he and Elizabeth Vargas leading the broadcast in early 2006, both Gibson and Sawyer quietly started maneuvering for the anchor position.

According to Howard Kurtz in Reality Show, his book chronicling the anchor wars, Sawyer and Gibson were in contact about the ascension possibilities, as partners on GMA for eight years prior, but there were definite backroom goings-on as well. There was more: Sawyer also felt the added weight of the Couric treatment, very much aware of how the media would treat them as competitors:

It would be like every movie that featured two women battling it out. Women made great copy, that was the way the popular culture worked ... She did not want her evening news tenure to be viewed through that prism. If she went to Darfur, the stories would be all about how she was trying to demonstrate that she was more interested in the plight of refugees than Couric was. She would be cast in a catfight.

We all know what happened: Gibson took over the ABC anchor chair. Couric took over at CBS. Sawyer remained at GMA, ever valuable to the network. Come January, she'll finally be making that switch from morning to evening, to one of the hallowed Big Three anchor chairs.

Why bring all this up now? Things seem so different now, don't they? Katie Couric has been on the job for three years now, and when it comes to waving scalps, Sarah Palin's is a pretty decent one to have claimed. Gibson's depature from the chair is news, certainly, but as previously mentioned it won't rate the kind of wall-to-wall coverage of the Brokaw-Williams handover, so carefully brokered and so seamlessly managed back in December 2004. New media upstarts enjoy dancing on the grave of the nightly news almost as much as they do that of newspapers. Though the Big Three claim 20+ million viewers each night, there's no doubt that the timeslot is not the big dog it once was.

Things are different — but that's why it's worth noting. Katie Couric's been leading the CBS Evening News for three years and it's still on the air (albeit with diminished ratings share). Charlie Gibson, for all his XY-chromosome-ness, never did manage to permanently unseat Brian Williams from that top spot. And in truth, there could not be a more perfect replacement for Gibson at ABC than Diane Sawyer, whose reporting chops, professionalism, longevity and on-air authority make her the ideal for a seamless transition.

But — looking ahead, there will be stories about how it's BriWi vs. The Girls, and real data there, too, about whether or not viewers are switching over. There will be catfight stories, especially if ABC and CBS start getting close in the ratings or double-dealing for big-time exclusives. There will be assessments of Sawyer's wardrobe choices and hairstyle, comparisons with the choices Couric makes and has made (here's a potential headline: Will Diane Sawyer Cut Her Hair? Katie Did!). Looking ahead is made somewhat easier by looking back, and the fact that those articles about Couric's wardrobe may have been in 2006, but chatter about Hillary Clinton's pantsuits and Sarah Palin's Naughty Monkey pumps are decidedly more recent.

Looking ahead, those will be the stories — but so, too, will be the story of how a longtime ABC stalwart with an award-winning career took over one of the most important posts, still, in news — and the whole thing didn't fall apart. That's the thing about progress. It just sort of happens.

This post was originally published at Mediaite.com.

 

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Comments

[texastrixie]

I think Sawyer has the journalistic background to anchor, but her condescending attitude comes across so vividly that she will not be my pick in the evenings. Gibson never caught my attention, mainly because he seemed so "nice," not a quality I want in a newsperson. Couric, even with that perky smile, knew what wanted, and it was to be taken seriously. Although Gibson got the "we can see Russia from Alaska" quote from Palin, Couric was the one who revealed Palin to be intellectually stunted and lacking any curiosity in the world outside her limited experience. I think Sawyer has the drive, but I don't think she has the guts to confront people. I think it was Sawyer who did some worthless interview with Lisa Marie Presley and Michael Jackson during their marriage. I don't think she ever openly confronted either of them with the general perception that Jackson was gay, and Presley had married him for other reasons than some deep, great romantic love.

[SingingGuy]

Diane Sawyer is one of the few peo[le on TV I would like to meet. As for her news credentials , Diane has them by the boat load. Good going, Diane!

[Bulbul]

ditto.

[SeaBlood]

Are we talking about a journalistic show or "Regis and Kathy Lee" ? Please fill me in, as I've stopped watching network tv ages ago.

[Ellis Weiner - Huffpost Blogger]

I can't stand Diane Sawyer. She cannot utter a word without seeming calculating, smug, and condescending. Maureen Dowd put it nicely when she referred to Sawyer's "creamy insincerity." This entire topic is the opposite of important.

[Bulbul]

That is your problem that you can`t stand Diane, talking about Dowd, she is actually more condescending than not .
But here, we are talking about news I thought, and with Diane`s experiance , she would do just fine...

[NoSillyName]

I can't either.

[aofh]

The only surprising thing is that Sawyer is not the anchor already. The question is will she usher in a return of gravitas to network news. She has the chops.

[dnasf]

I have been watching ABC "World" News for 25 years now. I will find another news to watch when Diane Sawyer takes over. I have never been a fan of hers.

[PerryWhite]

The host of Dancing with the Stars would have been a better choice. And Diane is only a few years younger than Charlie.

[Ozarks]

Got a news flash for you Rachel: Your entire post is hollow. Your purported Given: "to one of the hallowed Big Three anchor chairs" is a joke. The Big Three anchors, as an integral part of MSM ,has turned into a small mutiple of on of the many propaganda seats on networks ever shrinking audience. Charlie is rightly not getting the attention of Dan Rather for two reasons. Fewer people watch network alleged news programs and Charlie proved himself to be a joke at the ABC Presidential Primary Debate, much like Couric proved herself to be a joke by "editing" her interview with McCain , to his everlasting benefit!!

[marlovian]

The alternative was to choose a random person off the street to read someone else's words scrolling on a teleprompter.

[Andre Lieven]

All this commentary shows is "women, yay". Well, being FOR a person, just because of their sex is as sexist as being AGAINST someone just because of their sex. The issue exists only because Sawyer is poor with actual news.

[NoSillyName]

There are more serious women journalists than DS to choose from. She got picked simply because she's been there forever and .would feel insulted if she were not the first choice. Is a Seniority Pick, not a Hard News Pick.

[ckdogs]

The great news anchors did not have previous partisan affiliations. Diane Sawyer was a Nixon supporter and confidante. She definitely has a particular agenda. In addition, I find her a bit smarmy, in her affect. Reminds me of the "goody two shoes" kids at school. I think she will be helpful in boosting the ratings of Katie and Brian.

[comatoast]

I agree- Katie and Brian should be happy about this. Personally, I would have preferred Elizabeth Vargas- very smart and easy on the eyes. (That assumes, of course, that you're out of the running Rachel.)