Top 10 Most Powerful Media Personalities
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Not everyone has been born with the power to influence the public with their work. Only a few number of media personalities have been able to get the trust and loyalty of their viewers. So if you are wondering who the most powerful media personalities are, here are the top ten most recognized in the world.
10. Harry Reasoner – Journalist
Harry Truman Reasoner was an American journalist for CBS and ABC News. He is best known for being the founder of the CBS show, entitled 60 Minutes, as well as for being a television commentator with a knack for inventive use of language. One of Reasoner’s most notable achievements during his career is his part in the coverage of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination. He retired in 1991. Three months after his retirement, Harry Reasoner passed away due to a clot in his brain.
9. Peter Jennings – Television Anchor/Journalist
Peter Jennings, born Peter Charles Archibald Ewart Jennings, was a news anchor and a television journalist with Canadian and American heritage. He was the only anchor of the World News Tonight show of ABC from 1983, until he passed away due to lung cancer complications in 2005. Jennings, while he dropped out of high school, was able to turn himself into one of the most prominent journalists and media personalities of American television. He won many different honors throughout his long career, including two George Foster Peabody Awards and 16 Emmys.
8. Dan Rather – Television Journalist
From Wharton, Texas, Dan Rather is a television journalist as well as a former CBS Evening News anchor. He anchored this show for 24 years, starting from March 1981 to March 2005. He was also a contributor to another CBS show, entitled 60 Minutes. He left the station in 2006, after staying with it for more than four decades. Today, he is the anchor and the managing editor of AXS TV’s television news magazine show entitled Dan Rather Reports.
7. Max Robinson – Television Journalist
Max Robinson, born in Richmond, Virginia on the 1st of May, 1939, is best known for being the first ever African-American news anchor to make it into the broadcast network news industry of the United States. He was an American broadcast and television journalist as well as the co-anchor of the ABC World News Tonight. He was also one of the first TV broadcast journalists to have died due to AIDS. One of Robinson’s most notable achievements is having founded the National Association of Black Journalists.
6. Tom Brokaw – Author, Television Journalist
Tom Brokaw is best known for being the managing editor and the anchor of NBC Nightly News from the year 1982 to 2004. This television journalist and anchor has also authored the 1998 book entitled The Greatest Generation as well as many other books. He has also received numerous honors and awards. Brokaw is the only man who has ever hosted three major NBC programs, namely The Today Show, the NBC Nightly News, and Meet the Press. Today, he is known for serving NBC News as a Special Correspondent.
5. Brian Williams – News Anchor, NBC Nightly News Managing Editor
Brian Williams, in addition to being the anchor of the NBC Nightly News, he is also the managing editor of the show itself. The NBC Nightly News is NBC’s evening news program. He assumed this position in the year 2004. In his first year, he covered two disasters: one being the Asian Tsunami, the other being Hurricane Katrina. The station felt that Williams did a tremendously good job covering the two incidents and now, he’s one of the most recognized news anchors on the planet.
4. Douglas Edwards – Broadcast Journalist
Douglas Edwards was America’s first ever network news television anchor, being an anchor for the first nightly news broadcast of CBS from the year 1948 to 1962. The news show was then later given a new name, which is now known as the CBS Evening News. He joined the CBS Radio back in 1942. He eventually became the anchor for The World Today and World News Today. Some of his most notable broadcasts include his anchoring of the World War II for World News Today and his coverage on Andrea Doria.
3. Bob Young – News Anchor, Journalist
Bob Young was born in November 7, 1923 and came from Ridgewood, New Jersey. He was a news anchor and a television journalist for the ABC News. He was also the anchor of what we know now as the World News, formerly called The ABC Evening News, from 1967 to 1968. His most notable broadcast happened on the 4th of April 1968, when he covered the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. for ABC. After Young left ABC, he went on to become an anchor for the WCBS-TV 11PM newscast. He died at the age of 87 on the 19th of January, 2011.
2. Diane Sawyer – Television Journalist
Born Lila Diane Saywer on the 22nd of December 1945, Diane Sawyer is currently the anchor of the flagship program of ABC News called ABC World News. Before this, she was the co-anchor of the morning news program of the same station, Good Morning America (GMA). Her father, Erbon Powers “Tom” Sawyer, was a judge and a Republican politician. Some of her most notable achievements include being a literary assistant to President Richard Nixon as well as the co-anchor of 20/20 (1998 to 2000) and Primetime Live (1989-1998). She was also a correspondent of 60 Minutes from 1984 to 1989.
1. Walter Cronkite – News Anchor, Television/Radio Broadcaster
Walter Cronkite secures the number one spot on this list of the most powerful media personalities mainly because, during his time, people gave him the title of being ‘the most trusted man’ in the entire United States. Born on the 4th of November, 1916 in Saint Joseph, Missouri, Cronkite reported so many events that took place from the year 1937 to 1981. Some of these include the World War II bombings, the Vietnam War combat, the Iran Hostage Crisis, the Nuremberg trials, and the murder of President John F. Kennedy among many others. He was also known for extensively covering the U.S. space program, including Project Mercury, the Moon landings, and the Space Shuttle. He died in 2009 after battling with a cerebro-vascular disorder.
