Cynthia McFadden and Martin Bashir will be based in New York, while Terry Moran will stay in Washington, the AP says.
“McFadden has worked at ABC News for 12 years, concentrating on Primetime Live. Moran has been the network’s chief White House correspondent since 1999, and anchors the Sunday edition of World News Tonight. Bashir, a British journalist best-known for his newsmaking interview with Michael Jackson, has been with ABC for a year.”
Their full bios, via ABC News, are after the jump…
TERRY MORAN
ABC News Chief White House Correspondent
Anchor, “World News Tonight Sundayâ€
Terry Moran was named anchor of “World News Tonight Sunday†in August 2004, while continuing to serve as ABC News’ Chief White House correspondent, a position he has held since September 1999. As White House Correspondent, he reports on all aspects of the Bush administration for “World News Tonight,†“Nightline†and other ABC News broadcasts. Mr. Moran has traveled widely covering President Bush’s domestic and foreign trips and the President’s meetings with world leaders.
Mr. Moran was a key member of the ABC News team covering the events of September 11, 2001, and he continues to report on all aspects of the war on terror. He reported from the White House throughout the war with Iraq during the spring of 2003.
In November of 2003, Mr. Moran traveled to Baghdad to report on the U.S.-led occupation and the violent insurgency against it. His tour in Iraq has given him a unique perspective on the war, having now covered first-hand both the president who launched it and the American men and women who fought it and have struggled to secure the country afterwards.
Mr. Moran also covered Vice President Al Gore’s presidential campaign. He traveled extensively, reporting on the primary battles between Gore and Senator Bill Bradley in Iowa, New Hampshire and on Super Tuesday. During the hard-fought general-election campaign, he logged thousands of miles with Vice President Gore and spent Election Day in Nashville, where he reported on the historic events that night. For the next 35 days, he covered the legal battle for the White House, and on the chaotic night the U.S. Supreme Court decided the case of Bush v. Gore, it was from listening to Mr. Moran’s clear explanation of the Court’s opinion that Vice President Gore himself learned he had lost the presidency.
In 1999 Mr. Moran traveled to the Balkans to cover the war in Kosovo and its troubled aftermath. From the refugee camps in Macedonia to the Roma (“gypsyâ€) neighborhoods of Pristina, he investigated war-crimes stories and reported on the human impact of the ‘ethnic-cleansing’ campaigns launched by both Serbs and Kosovars.
Prior to covering politics and policy, Mr. Moran spent ten years covering law. From 1998-1999 he was the primary ABC News correspondent assigned to the U.S. Supreme Court. He filed stories on several major cases of the term, including Davis v. Monroe County Board of Education, a case that raised the issue of schools’ liability for student-on-student sexual harassment.
Other legal stories he has covered for ABC News include the murder trial of British au pair Louise Woodward in Cambridge, Mass.; the fourth trial of Dr. Jack Kevorkian; the trial of the Unabomber, Theodore Kaczynski; the Microsoft anti-trust case; and the Portland, Oregon, trial of anti-abortion activists sued for contributing to a website that the jury found illegally threatened abortion providers. For “Nightline†— among other stories — Mr. Moran covered the unique death-penalty case of Horace Kelly, a man who had gone insane on California’s death row and was then
brought before a jury, which was asked if he should still be executed; the tragic rash of heroin-overdose deaths of teenagers in Plano, Texas; and the remarkable gathering of dozens of former death-row inmates freed when evidence of their innocence came to light. For this piece, Mr. Moran was awarded the Thurgood Marshall Journalism Award by the Death Penalty Information Center. He was also in Miami in the spring of 1999 when Elian Gonzalez was seized by federal agents and returned to his father, and he covered the protests and the civil disturbances in the city that followed the government’s action.
Prior to joining ABC News, Terry Moran was a correspondent and anchor for Court TV. He received critical acclaim for his nightly coverage of the day’s events in the murder trial of O.J. Simpson, and for his extensive reports during the trial of Erik and Lyle Menendez, when the Los Angeles brothers first faced charges for the shotgun murders of their parents.
For Court TV, Mr. Moran also traveled to Bosnia and The Hague, in the Netherlands, to cover the first international war-crimes trial since World War II, that of a Bosnian Serb named Dusko Tadic. In addition, he was Court TV’s correspondent covering the Supreme Court confirmation debates over Clarence Thomas, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer. Before joining Court TV, he was a reporter and assistant managing editor for Legal Times.
Mr. Moran has written for many publications, including The New York Times, The Washington Post and The New Republic Magazine — where he began his career in journalism.
CYNTHIA McFADDEN
Co-anchor, “Primetime Live”
ABC News Senior Legal Correspondent
Cynthia McFadden joined ABC News in February 1994 as the network’s legal correspondent. Two years later, she was named a correspondent for “PrimeTime Live†and last year was named a co-anchor of “Primetime.â€
Most recently on “Primetime,†McFadden reported and anchored two hours on the lives of children in America. The first was a ground-breaking documentary (“Family Lost, Family Found†June, 2005) following three children being raised by their grandmothers in Newark, New Jersey. The documentary was shot over a four year period and provided intimate portraits of these children and their grandmothers’ lives.
The second hour (“The War Over Kids “July, 2005) was the first time network cameras were allowed inside family court for an extended look at the children whose lives are forever changed by what happens there. In Louisville, Kentucky two children were followed over nine months as their parents, social workers and judges struggled with where the children should live.
McFadden has occasionally substituted for Ted Koppel at “Nightline†and has also reported for that broadcast. In July, 2005 in the wake of the London bombings, McFadden went to Pakistan for an exclusive interview with President Pervez Musharraf. The “Nightline†report also provided rare access to the Pakistan’s Security Counsel.
In October, 2005 McFadden provided two exclusive reports for “Nightline†on the U.S. government’s attempts to secure loose nuclear materials and weapons both domestically and abroad.
In her role as ABC News’ senior legal correspondent, McFadden has covered a wide range of stories from the Justice Department and the Supreme Court. She has also reported on legal cases from O.J. Simpson to Martha Stewart, Kobe Bryant, Elizabeth Smart, Laci Peterson and Michael Jackson breaking numerous stories on this beat.
In 2004, McFadden served as the legal editor and narrator of the ground-breaking ABC News documentary series “In the Jury Room,” which chronicled six homicide trials from a unique, “fly-on-the-wall” perspective. The series made television history by becoming the first program to show jury deliberations in a death penalty case. McFadden was also the narrator of the precursor to “In the Jury Room,” the 2002 documentary series “State v.”
Also in 2004, she co-anchored and reported (with Robin Roberts) an hour long documentary on school integration 50 years after Brown v. School Board. The program has won several awards including the first place documentary from the N.Y. Association of Black Journalists.
As part of ABC’s 9/11 reporting team she received a 2001-2002 Dupont Award. For ABC’s Millennium coverage — she reported from Cuba and was part of the team which was awarded the 1999-2000 Emmy.
McFadden’s other “Primetime†reports have included an exclusive interview with Osama bin Laden’s pilot; a ground-breaking report on gays in the military; an in-depth analysis of physicians serving as HMO providers despite having been disciplined for wrong-doing; an exclusive investigation and interview with the man who claims to be the sole attacker in the Central Park Jogger rape case; and an explosive hour-long investigation into a Massachusetts facility that routinely and voluntarily released violent sexual predators who preyed on children after getting out.
McFadden led the first investigation by a major news organization into one of America’s darkest secrets: the forced sterilization of 60,000 to 100,000 American citizens; provided two award-winning, exclusive reports on the trafficking of women into sexual slavery — one in Israel and the other in India where children are sold; provided a disturbing look at the horrifying conditions inside two Mexican government institutions for the mentally ill and retarded (which led to a nation-wide over-haul of the system); she tracked five accused murderers to their hiding places in El Salvador where she interviewed two of them and investigated the use of female contraceptives to treat convicted rapists.
In addition to many important newsmakers, McFadden has interviewed such celebrities as Madonna, Cher, George Clooney, Tony Bennett and Alicia Keys.
Her 1996 one-hour special “Judgment at Midnight†was the first time cameras were ever allowed on any death row cell block to document the final weeks of one inmate’s life. The broadcast was accorded tremendous critical acclaim and numerous awards.
In January of 1999, McFadden anchored the award winning ABC News special, “Target America: The Terrorist War,†in which she reported on the African Embassy bombings.
Previously, McFadden had been an anchor and senior producer at the Courtroom Television Network, beginning with the network’s inception in 1991 where she anchored live coverage of more than 200 trials, among them the William Kennedy Smith rape trial, the Menendez brothers’ murder trial and the Rodney King trial.
From 1984 to 1991, McFadden was the executive producer of Fred Friendly’s Media and Society seminars based at Columbia University. More than 30 of her programs were broadcast on PBS, including series on ethics, the military, terrorism and the Presidency.
McFadden’s other awards include: the George Foster Peabody Award, an Oversees Press Club Award, six Cine Golden Eagles, the Ohio State Award, two Silver Gavels from the American Bar Association, the Grand Award of the New York Festival, and the Blue Ribbon of the American Film Festival. While at Court TV, she was twice nominated for the CableACE’s Anchor of the Year.
A native of Maine, McFadden graduated Phi Beta Kappa and summa cum laude from Bowdoin College. She received her law degree from Columbia University.
MARTIN BASHIR
ABC News “20/20†Correspondent
Internationally acclaimed, award-winning journalist Martin Bashir joined ABC’s newsmagazine “20/20,†in September 2004. Mr. Bashir is best known for making landmark documentaries including “Living with Michael Jackson,†and conducting such exclusive interviews as the now historic one with the late Princess Diana. He is also known for his investigative reporting for ITV, British television’s most popular network. Mr. Bashir’s work has been broadcast worldwide.
Twenty-seven million American viewers tuned in to watch his 2003 documentary “Living with Michael Jackson,†which featured exclusive access to the king of pop and prompted a police investigation of the singer.
Since joining ITV in 1999, other reports have included: “Who Wants to be a Millionaire: A Major Fraud,†a documentary about the couple found guilty of cheating their way to the top prize in the British version of the game. He also conducted the only interview with Louise Woodward, the au pair found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in Boston.
Mr. Bashir has conducted a number of high profile investigations, including one into the financial activities of England soccer coach Terry Venable. Following the broadcast, Venables admitted to 17 specimen charges and was banned from being a company director. Mr. Bashir also raised serious questions about the British government’s sale of the English coal regions to businessman Richard Budge, focusing on Mr. Budge’s financial probity. His work on allegations of so-called Satanic Abuse in Scotland provoked a government inquiry, as did his documentary about safety concerns at the UK’s Atomic Weapons Establishment in Aldermaston.
Among Mr. Bashir’s numerous honors is a BAFTA Award (as well as several nominations for the British equivalent of an Academy Award), and he has been named the Royal Television Society’s Journalist of the Year.