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CHARLES GIBSON
Anchor, "ABC's World News with Charles Gibson"
Charles Gibson is anchor of ABC's flagship broadcast "ABC's World News." He is one of the most distinguished journalists in television with over forty years' experience, more than thirty of those spent at ABC News.
Prior to being named anchor of "World News," Mr. Gibson was co-anchor of "Good Morning America." He returned to "GMA" to re-launch the broadcast with Diane Sawyer on January 18, 1999. He previously co-anchored the morning program from 1987 to 1998. In addition, he was also co-anchor of "Primetime Thursday," now known as "Primetime."
On "Good Morning America," Mr. Gibson covered "front page" events and issues. In 2005, he traveled to Vatican City to report on the death of Pope John Paul II, and he was the first morning television anchor to report live from inside the walls of CIA Headquarters, where he had a wide-ranging, exclusive interview with former CIA Director Porter Goss. In addition, Mr. Gibson interviewed President George W. Bush at his Crawford, Texas ranch the week before the 2004 presidential election and also sat down with former President Bill Clinton for a candid conversation about his memoir, "My Life." In fact, Mr. Gibson has interviewed each of the last seven American presidents, and has also anchored many broadcasts from Republican and Democratic national conventions, as well as presidential inaugurations. In 2004 he was chosen to moderate the 90-minute town hall style debate between President George W. Bush and Senator John Kerry that was watched by 47 million people around the country.
Mr. Gibson also covered news on the broader domestic front for "Good Morning America." In February 2003, he anchored "GMA" from the Johnson Space Center in Houston to report on the loss of the space shuttle Columbia. There he brought breaking news reports to the viewers, detailing the horrific tragedy that affected the entire country. In addition to his Columbia tragedy reporting on "GMA," he won an Emmy for his July 2003 hour-long "Primetime Thursday" investigation entitled "Columbia Final Mission."
As co-anchor of "Primetime Thursday," Mr. Gibson covered a wide-range of news stories. On the tenth anniversary of the Branch Davidian stand-off in Waco, TX, he interviewed young survivors of David Koresh's cult in a special hour-long "Primetime" report. In 2004 he sat down with major league baseball legend Pete Rose for an interview that made national headlines, as it was the first time Rose admitted that he had bet on baseball.
Anchoring "Good Morning America" on September 11, 2001, Mr. Gibson, along with Ms. Sawyer, began the network's award-winning coverage of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. For ABC News' first anniversary coverage of September 11, he interviewed Vice President Dick Cheney about the aftermath of the attacks and the decision to seek Presidential authorization to shoot down aircraft over American soil. His hour-long "Moments of Crisis" report captured the many powerful memories of the day from those in the national leadership at the White House, the Pentagon and on Capitol Hill. He also interviewed Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld during a live broadcast from the Pentagon on September 9, 2002.
In November 2001, Mr. Gibson and the "Good Morning America" team joined the five thousand officers and crew of the USS Enterprise for a special live broadcast from the deck of the aircraft carrier at sea, as it returned from the last leg of Operation Enduring Freedom in the Persian Gulf. Prior to the first Gulf War in 1990, he celebrated Thanksgiving with U.S. troops serving in Operation Desert Shield during a week of live broadcasts from Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.
In June 2001, at the Oklahoma City National Memorial, Mr. Gibson anchored ABC's live coverage of the Timothy McVeigh execution. He had reported from the scene when the Murrah Federal Building was bombed in April 1995, and continued to follow the story on multiple return visits to Oklahoma City, including a "Primetime Thursday" hour, "American Terrorist: In His Own Words," in March 2001.
Mr. Gibson has interviewed leaders from around the globe, including Kofi Annan, Tony Blair, the late Yasir Arafat and Nelson Mandela. He traveled to Israel in April 2002 to cover the crisis of suicide bombings, and reported from Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, in October 2000 to cover the Middle East peace summit. Just hours after the funeral of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995, Mr. Gibson conducted a live interview with widow Leah Rabin in her home in Tel Aviv. In April 1999, he reported from Macedonia's tent cities for refugees from Kosovo.
Mr. Gibson first became familiar to television viewers as a correspondent on "ABC's World News Tonight with Peter Jennings," as an occasional substitute anchor for Ted Koppel on "Nightline," and as substitute anchor on "World News This Morning." He served as chief correspondent at the House of Representatives for ABC News from 1981 to 1987. On Capitol Hill he covered Tip O'Neill and the Democratic handling of President Ronald Reagan's legislative agenda. On general assignment for ABC News from 1977 to 1981, Mr. Gibson reported on a wide array of national news, including investigations of the Central Intelligence Agency, as well as economic stories. As a White House correspondent for ABC News from 1976 to 1977, he covered Gerald Ford's presidential campaign.
Mr. Gibson came to ABC News in 1975 from a syndicated news service, Television News Inc. (TVN), which he joined in 1974. He covered President Nixon's resignation and the subsequent Watergate conspiracy trials for TVN. From 1970 to 1973, he was an anchor and reporter for WJLA-TV (then WMAL-TV), the ABC affiliate in Washington, DC. Prior to joining WJLA-TV, he had been news director for WLVA-TV and Radio in Lynchburg, Virginia. His first job in broadcasting was Washington producer for RKO Network in 1966.
The National Endowment for the Humanities named Mr. Gibson a National Journalism Fellow at the University of Michigan in 1973, and he has served as a board member of this program, now known as the Knight-Wallace Fellows at Michigan, since 1988. In April of 2006, he was awarded the prestigious Paul White Award from the Radio and Television News Directors of America.
Mr. Gibson is a graduate of Princeton University, where he was news director for the University's radio station, WPRB-FM. He was honored with the 1992 John Maclean Fellowship, awarded to Princeton alumni "who have made a major contribution to American society."
A native of Evanston, Illinois, Mr. Gibson grew up in Washington, DC. He and his wife, Arlene, live in New York. They have two daughters and one grandson.