Sawyer brings 'Primetime' to her hometown

Courier-Journal, The (Louisville, KY)

June 1, 2006 Sawyer brings 'Primetime' to her hometown
Author: Tamara Ikenberg tikenberg@courier-journal.com The Courier-Journal Edition: METRO
Section: Features
Page: 1E

Not every orphan hits the Angelina Jolie jackpot. For every Maddox and Zahara, there are thousands of children lost in the foster care system.

The state of America's foster care system is the focus of tonight's "Primetime" with Diane Sawyer.

ABC's research revealed that more than a half-million children enter the underfunded foster care system each year, and 100,000 are up for adoption. Sawyer fleshed out the statistics by exploring the causes leading to foster care placement, interviewing young adults who have been through the system and visiting centers that are doing things right, such as Louisville's Maryhurst, a 160-year-old treatment and residential center for severely traumatized girls, many of whom have been placed in multiple foster care homes or hospitals.

"(ABC) was looking for a residential treatment center that served some of the kids that have probably been most abused," said Maryhurst president and CEO Judy Lambeth.

"The Maryhurst mission is to serve the greatest-need children, and that means we take the kids from our state that have not been successful in other placements. They're aggressive. They're angry because of all the abuse."

For Sawyer, prepping for the show wasn't just a journey into an issue she holds very dear; it was also a trip back to her hometown. This past March, she visited Maryhurst for a day.

"They specialize, they know the population of young girls they are dealing with. They know that change is made in tiny steps; it's not made in sweeping transformations," she said.

"They know that it's about, in many cases, having one adult who demonstrates what it is to have a grownup you can depend on. Sometimes, one person standing there for you and standing firm can make all the difference."

Especially if that person is Diane Sawyer.

All in black, with perfect skin and blond hair , Sawyer, 60, looks every bit the intellectual beauty that portly comic penguin Opus used to worship in "Bloom County." Yet, the Maryhurst staff noticed that Sawyer, who got her start on WLKY , is extremely approachable, with a professional edge.

"The children talked to her, and that's really one of her gifts; getting people to feel comfortable enough with her to share. And our children are pretty distrustful of adults," Lambeth said.

"... Diane really has a heart for what is going on in the foster care system. To have someone interested telling the story was very important to us. What happens to our kids is hard to hear about, and if someone of her stature is telling it, people listen."

A matter of time

In addition to conversing with the Maryhurst girls, Sawyer also had her mom visit for a tour of the grounds, and later, she helped get the kids to bed. Sawyer said she's often thought of adopting a child with her husband of nearly 20 years, director Mike Nichols.

"If I had a life that didn't have me on the road as much as it does, I really think I would be sitting down and reading and taking the courses to do it," she said. "One of the things that's most important is time. You need to be there and be there the next day and be there the week after that."

On top of all the effort she's put into tonight's show, Sawyer's life is a whirlwind of work.

She still wakes up around 4 a.m. every day to look TV-perfect on "Good Morning America," which she's co-anchored since 1999. And soon, she'll be saying goodbye to her co-anchor Charlie Gibson, who was just named new anchor of "World News Tonight."

Some say Sawyer wanted the job for herself, but she's been quoted as saying, "Charlie will be wonderful on World News Tonight. I will be watching him every night."

Gibson's new appointment is one of two major anchor switcheroos going on in network news. Katie Couric just left the "Today Show" to anchor the "CBS Evening News."

Women in news

Sawyer, who as the first female correspondent o n "60 Minutes" established herself as a pioneering female journalist, is pleased to see women taking top network spots.

"I think that the whole world has advanced to a new chapter with Elizabeth Vargas, and what we hear about Katie. The fact that women are in the strongest possible positions is just a great thing," she said.

"I always knew it would happen, and I probably am on record predicting it would happen sooner than everybody thought because you can't have women just in the ranks in the news division without feeling their strength. Also, more than half of the viewers of most network programs are female these days. It's a wonderful thing that the person viewing the screen can also see women up there too."

Speaking of seeing women "up there," has Sawyer seen the stories-high mural of her own face beaming down on downtown Louisville from the side of the Starks Building?

"I have. My cousin (who lives here) says, day after day, 'I walk out, and there you are, looking at me,'" she said. "I think he feels it's like big sister looking down on him every day."

Reporter Tamara Ikenberg can be reached at (502) 582-4174.

Copyright (c) The Courier-Journal. All rights reserved. Reproduced with the permission of Gannett Co., Inc. by NewsBank, inc.
Record Number: lou30512246

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