Charles Gibson

ByABC News via logo
October 1, 2004, 6:46 PM

— -- Charles Gibson returned to "Good Morning America" to relaunch the broadcast with Diane Sawyer on Jan. 18, 1999. He previously co-anchored the morning program from 1987 to 1998. In addition, Mr. Gibson was also co-anchor of "Primetime Thursday," now known as "Primetime Live," and continues to serve as a substitute anchor on "World News Tonight."

On "Good Morning America," Mr. Gibson covers "front page" events and issues. In 2005, he traveled to Vatican City to report on the death of Pope John Paul II and was the first morning television anchor to report live from inside the walls of CIA headquarters. There, Mr. Gibson had a wide-ranging exclusive interview with CIA Director Porter Goss. In addition, Mr. Gibson interviewed President Bush at his Crawford, Texas, ranch the week before the 2004 presidential election and also sat down with former President Clinton for a candid conversation about his memoir, "My Life." Mr. Gibson continues to interview newsmakers regularly.

On the political beat, Mr. Gibson has interviewed each of the last seven American presidents and has anchored many broadcasts from Republican and Democratic national conventions as well as presidential inaugurations. In 2004, Mr. Gibson was chosen to moderate the 90-minute town-hall style debate between President Bush and Sen. John Kerry that was watched by 47 million people around the country.

Mr. Gibson also continually covers news on the domestic front. In February 2003, he anchored "Good Morning America" from the Johnson Space Center in Houston to report on the loss of the space shuttle Columbia. There, Mr. Gibson brought breaking news reports to the viewers of "Good Morning America," detailing the horrific tragedy that affected the entire country. In addition to his reporting for "Good Morning America," Mr. Gibson won an Emmy Award for his July 2003 hour-long "Primetime Thursday" investigation titled "Columbia Final Mission."

As co-anchor of "Primetime Thursday," Mr. Gibson covered many news stories. On the 10th anniversary of the Branch Davidian standoff in Waco, Texas, Mr. Gibson interviewed young survivors of David Koresh's cult in a special hour-long "Primetime Thursday" report, and in 2004, Mr. Gibson 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 Sept. 11, 2001, Mr. Gibson, along with Ms. Sawyer, began the network's award-winning coverage of the attacks on the World Trade Center. For ABC News' first anniversary coverage of Sept. 11, Mr. Gibson interviewed Vice President Dick Cheney about the aftermath of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the decision to seek presidential authorization to shoot down aircraft over American soil. Mr. Gibson's 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. Mr. Gibson also interviewed Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld during a live, historic broadcast from the Pentagon on Sept. 9, 2002.

In November 2001, Mr. Gibson and the "Good Morning America" team joined the 5,000 officers and crew of the USS Enterprise for a special live broadcast from the deck of the aircraft carrier as it returned to Virginia from the last leg of Operation Enduring Freedom in the Persian Gulf. Before the first Gulf War in 1990, Mr. Gibson 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 he continued to follow the story on multiple return visits to Oklahoma City, such as in March 2001, for a "Primetime Thursday" hour, "American Terrorist: In His Own Words."

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 at her home in Tel Aviv. In April 1999, he reported from Macedonia's tent cities on 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 for Ted Koppel as anchor on "Nightline," and as substitute anchor on "World News This Morning."

Mr. Gibson was chief correspondent covering the House of Representatives for ABC News from 1981 to 1987. On Capitol Hill, Mr. Gibson covered Tip O'Neill and the Democratic handling of President 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 CIA, 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., which he joined in 1974. He covered President Nixon's resignation and the subsequent Watergate conspiracy trials for TVN.

From 1970 to 1973, Mr. Gibson was an anchor and reporter for WJLA-TV (then WMAL-TV), the ABC affiliate in Washington, D.C. Before joining WJLA-TV, he had been news director for WLVA-TV and Radio in Lynchburg, Va. 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.

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, which is awarded to Princeton alumni "who have made a major contribution to American society."

Mr. Gibson, a native of Evanston, Ill., grew up in Washington, D.C. He and his wife, Arlene, live in New York. They have two daughters.