Editing Roone Arledge (section)

===ABC News===
[[File:Roone Arledge 2.jpg|left|thumb|Arledge in the 1970s]]

Arledge took over as President of ABC  News during a time that had  been characterized by  blunders such as the disastrous pairing of [[Barbara Walters]] with [[Harry Reasoner]] at the desk of the network's evening news. The previous year, ABC had lured Walters away from NBC's Today Show for $1,000,000. Previous to that time, the only news experience Arledge had was providing ABC's coverage of the tragedies during the '72 Olympics in Munich. Other than that, he had no other major experience in news. Arledge's first major creation for ABC was 20/20, which premiered in June 1978. The first iteration of this program fared badly, and resulted in the firing of the original hosts, with [[Hugh Downs]] chosen as the new anchor beginning the second week of the program, with the above-mentioned Barbara Walters joining Downs the following year, eventually becoming Downs' co-anchor by 1981.

Shortly thereafter, Arledge reformatted the network's evening newscast with many of the splashy graphics he had developed at Wide World of Sports, and created World News Tonight. The program was unique not only because it was anchored by three newsmen, but because each of them was located in separate cities. The lead anchor became [[Frank Reynolds]], who was based in Washington, with [[Max Robinson]] based out of Chicago, and [[Peter Jennings]] reporting from London. The program expanded to Sundays in 1979 and Saturdays in 1985.

In 1983, Reynolds died of bone cancer, and Robinson departed the network, and ABC made Jennings the sole anchor of World News Tonight on September 5, 1983. Jennings anchored the broadcast until April 5, 2005, when he announced that he had been diagnosed with lung cancer, to which Jennings would succumb on August 7, 2005.

In 1979, the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, Iran was taken over by Iranian students, creating the [[Iranian Hostage Crisis]]. And on November 4, 1979, Frank Reynolds began anchoring a series of special reports entitled [[America Held Hostage]]. Several nights later, [[Ted Koppel]], then the network's diplomatic correspondent to the U.S. State Department, took over as anchor. The special reports led to the creation of [[Nightline]], which premiered on March 24, 1980. Koppel anchored the broadcast with [[Chris Bury]], and served as its managing editor. Koppel retained the position until his retirement in November 2005.

In 1981, Arledge brought David Brinkley to ABC from NBC, and created the Sunday-morning affairs program This Week for Brinkley. Brinkley would retire from the program in 1996. The last major news program created during Arledge's reign at ABC News was ''Primetime Live'', in 1989. The program was originally anchored by Sam Donaldson and Diane Sawyer.

In 1986, Arledge stepped down as president of ABC Sports. That same year, ABC's World News Tonight began a ten-year domination of the network news ratings. In 1998, Arledge retired from ABC News. Arledge died on December 5, 2002, in New York City, New York, at the age of 71, following a battle with prostate cancer. He was buried in Southampton Cemetery. His autobiography, ''Roone: A Memoir'', was published posthumously in 2003.