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As president of ABC News, David Westin oversees all editorial and business aspects of the News Division. This includes all ABC News programs on the ABC Television Network, ABC News Radio -- the #1 radio news network -- ABC News.com and ABC News NOW.
Mr. Westin has led ABC News since 1997. In that time, ABC News aired over 40 documentaries, including by Peter Jennings on the 20th Century, Jesus and Paul, AIDS in Black America, tobacco, Guantanamo and Islam; by Diane Sawyer on North Korea, veterans’ hospitals, Russian orphans, foster care, poverty and prostitution; by Barbara Walters on Fidel Castro, Heaven, adoption and longevity; and by Bob Woodruff on traumatic brain injury suffered in Iraq. During Mr. Westin’s tenure, ABC News aired John Miller’s interview with Osama bin Laden from Afghanistan, the last such interview with a western journalist, as well as Barbara Walters’ interview with Monica Lewinsky, the highest rated news program in television history.
Under Mr. Westin’s leadership, Diane Sawyer and Charlie Gibson led the resurgence of “Good Morning America,” “Good Morning America Weekend” was created, “Nightline” changed its format, and “This Week” became “This Week with George Stephanopoulos.” During the 2004 Democratic convention in Boston, Mr. Westin launched ABC News NOW, the 24-hour news service available on cable, wireless and broadband.
Mr. Westin also created and built an array of special units to report for all ABC News outlets, led by the Brian Ross Investigative Unit and Dr. Timothy Johnson’s Medical Unit, the Law & Justice Unit, the Business Unit and the Polling Unit. In 2007 he announced the largest single expansion of foreign news coverage in the history of ABC News by sending seven new “digital reporters” to Mumbai, New Delhi, Jakarta, Nairobi, Seoul, Dubai and Rio de Janeiro to report for all ABC News outlets and broadcasts.
Mr. Westin has guided several award-winning, division-wide reporting efforts, including “ABC 2000,” the 24-hour broadcast from around the world that brought in the new millennium, ABC News’ coverage of 9/11, its coverage of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the series “Iraq: Where Things Stand,” and extensive reports on health and wellness issues, including lung cancer, breast cancer, the pharmaceutical industry and health care in America. In addition, ABC News has partnered with Time magazine to produce series on global warming, traffic and obesity, and with USA Today to report on pain, living longer and loose nukes.
During Mr. Westin’s tenure, ABC News became the first American news organization to broadcast live from North Korea, to broadcast live from the Potala Palace in Tibet, to broadcast a regularly scheduled morning program in high definition, and to provide HD coverage of a presidential State of the Union address. In 2008 ABC News became the first broadcast network in history to air debates among presidential candidates in primetime during a primary season when it aired back-to-back Republican and Democratic debates on the eve of the New Hampshire primary.