First there are the blond-haired good looks: striking but somehow wholesome, more high school prom queen than Hollywood glamour puss. Then there's the rich, honeyed voice: husky and authoritative, but free of the severe tone affected by some females in TV news. As a reader of the news, she is masterly: businesslike but warm, her eyes now wide with the drama of the day, now crinkling ever so slightly with concern. Diane Sawyer doesn't just deliver the news, she performs it.
But there's more than mere show-biz flair here. Sawyer is a fully credentialed reporter who covered Three Mile Island and...