The 20/20 Leader has Died

It was sad to hear that one of TV news biggest pioneers had passed away.

Av Westin the man that put ABC’s 20/20 on the map passed away after suffering a heart attack.

Westin got his start as a copy boy at CBS News working on the news with Edward R. Murrow. He moved over to ABC News as the EP of “World News Tonight”, but soon moved to 20/20 where he turned the news show into must-watch TV.

He brought together an all-star lineup with 20/20 hosted by Barbara Walters and Hugh Downs in the 1980s, had an A-list group of correspondents that included Sylvia Chase, Lynn Sherr, Geraldo Rivera, Tom Jarriel, Bob Brown and Sander Vanocur.

Westin’s time at “20/20” came to an end in February 1987, when he circulated an 18-page memo within ABC News and to its top executives at its parent company, Capital Cities/ABC, criticizing news-gathering procedures and calling the division inefficient and in need of a new focus.

The memo pissed off ABC News president Roone Arledge and he suspend him and took him off “20/20.”

“What I wrote was accurate,” Westin added, “but obviously it was inflammatory.”

After leaving ABC News, Westin was an executive at King World Productions, Time Warner, and the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences’ foundation.

H/T NY Times