Sawyer to host Peabody Awards

ATLANTA, March 18 (UPI) -- ABC "World News" anchor Diane Sawyer has signed on as host of the upcoming 69th annual George Foster Peabody Awards ceremony in New York.

The event honoring 2009's best in broadcasting is to take place May 17 at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel in Manhattan.

Sawyer will be the first media personality to emcee a second Peabody ceremony. She presided over the 56th annual awards in 1996. Sawyer also shared in the Peabody Award bestowed upon "Rush to Read," a 1994 investigative report presented by ABC News' "Prime Time Live."

"Diane Sawyer has worked in every facet of broadcast journalism," Horace Newcomb, director of the Peabody Awards at the University of Georgia, said in a statement Thursday. "Now, as anchor of ABC's 'World News,' all her prior experience is brought to bear on the most significant events of our time in the most professional manner. We are delighted that for the second time she will serve as our host and Master of Ceremonies for the 69th Peabody Awards presentation."