Judith “Judy” Woodruff is a well-known name in American journalism. She is best known for her role as the host and managing editor of the news programme “PBS NewsHour,” which airs on television. She has also worked for a variety of other news stations, such as CNN and NBC News, among many others. She was a co-chairperson at the International Women’s Media Foundation when it was first established.
She is on the board of trustees of Freedom Forum as well as the steering committee of Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press (RCFP), an organisation that advocates for press freedom. In addition to this, Woodruff is a member of the advisory board for the charitable organisation known as America Abroad Media.
Although she is highly recognised for her work as a journalist, a surprisingly small number of people are aware that the American woman is also a writer who has, up to this point, authored a number of novels. ‘The Theodore H. White lecture with Judy Woodruff’ and ‘This Is Judy Woodruff in the White House’ are two of the works that she has contributed to as a writer.
In 2013, the Women’s Media Center presented Woodruff and her co-anchor Gwen Ifill with a trophy in recognition of their work in the media industry.
Judy Woodruff Wiki
Judy Woodruff’s parents, William H. Woodruff and Anna Lee Woodruff, gave her the name Judith Woodruff when she was born on November 20, 1946 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in the United States. Anita is the name of one of her sisters.
After receiving his diploma from the Academy of Richmond County, Woodruff went on to complete his education at Meredith College. After that, she made the decision to change schools and enrolled at Duke University, where she ultimately earned a degree in political science.
In terms of the personal life of the American journalist, it is important to note that she is now wed to Al Hunt, the executive editor of Bloomberg News. Jeffrey, Benjamin, and Lauren are the names of the couple’s three children.
Husband
The writer and former reporter Al Hunt is Woodruff’s husband. Woodruff is also a reporter. They make their home in Washington, District of Columbia. The pair first connected with one another in 1976 in Plains, Georgia, during a softball game that was held between journalists and staff members of the Carter presidential campaign. They tied the knot on April 5, 1980, at St. Alban’s Episcopal Church, which is located in Washington, District of Columbia.
This happy couple has been blessed with three wonderful offspring: Jeffrey (1981), Benjamin (1986), and Lauren (1989). Woodruff gave birth to Jeffrey around five hours after she had been on the TV. As a result of surgery performed in 1998, Jeffrey, who had been born with a minor incidence of spina bifida, became crippled and suffered brain damage. As a result, Woodruff was forced to restrict the amount of work she did at CNN. The adoption of Lauren from Korea took place when she was only four months old.
Education and Profession
Regarding her academic background, Judy Woodruff began her studies at Meredith College in Raleigh, North Carolina, in 1964. At the time, she was interested in obtaining a degree in mathematics. After spending the previous two years at Meredith, she made the move to Duke University in 1966. Woodruff made the decision to pursue the field of journalism during her final year at Duke, after which she went on to get a bachelor’s degree in political science from the university.
In 1970, Judy Woodruff began her career in journalism by becoming a news anchor at WAGA-TV in Atlanta, Georgia, which at the time was an affiliate of the CBS network. After waiting another five years, she eventually found work at NBC News. She held the position of Chief White House Correspondent there from the years 1977 till 1982.
In addition, she was a correspondent for the channel’s “The Today Show” during the years 1982 to 1983. Following this, she moved to PBS and started working as the lead Washington reporter for the network’s programme known as “The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour.” In addition, Woodruff was the anchor of the documentary series on the channel that was branded “Frontline with Judy Woodruff.”
She was recruited by CNN in 1993, and for the next 12 years, she presided over the political chat programme known as “Inside Politics.” The next year, in 2006, she went back to PBS to work on the documentary titled “Generation Next.” The American journalist worked for PBS’s “The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer” the next year as both a senior reporter and a substitute anchor for the programme.
The PBS network announced on August 6, 2013, that she and Gwen Ifill will be the new co-anchors of the broadcast ‘PBS NewsHour’ as well as the new co-managing editors of the programme. After then, the two of them continued to split the responsibilities of anchoring the programme until November 2016, when Ifill passed away. After that, Woodruff took over as the only anchor of the show, with the exception of the nighttime broadcast.
Additionally, Judy Woodruff has been the host of the weekly show on Bloomberg Television named “Conversations with Judy Woodruff” from the year 2006.
Tom Johnson made the first approach to her about working for CNN at the tail end of 1992. After some initial reluctance, she eventually accepted the position four months later. In June of 1993, Woodruff and Frank Sesno began co-anchoring the political conversation show Inside Politics as well as the foreign news programme The World Today. Both of these programmes were broadcast on CNN.
Judy and Shaw take up hosting duties. When the daily show CNN WorldView that covered global issues was first broadcast in 1995. She remained a co-anchor of WorldView up to the year 2001, when the programme was taken off the air. Following Shaw’s retirement, Woodruff took over as the only host of Inside Politics, which was later rebranded as Judy Woodruff’s Inside Politics in February 2001.
She left CNN in June 2005 at the expiration of her contract in order to pursue a career in teaching, writing, and the production of a long-form television programme. In addition, she taught a class on the relationship between the media and politics during the autumn semester of 2006 at the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University. In addition to that, Woodruff began presenting a show called Conversations with Judy Woodruff, in which she conducted interviews with various individuals.
She continued to host Conversations with Judy Woodruff up until 2013, when the show ended. It wasn’t until February of 2007 that she was promoted to the role of senior reporter. In addition, in December 2009, the news show transitioned to a dual anchor format and changed its name to PBS NewsHour. PBS NewsHour welcomed Woodruff as a co-anchor in September 2013, and since then she has shared weekday duties with Gwen Ifill while reporting the news on her own on Fridays.
In February of 2016, Woodruff and Ifill served as moderators for the sixth debate of the Democratic presidential candidates. Formalizing Woodruff’s status as “solo anchor” occurred in March of 2018, but before to that, PBS looked for a new host to take over for Ifill. Earlier in her career, she served on the Knight Commission as a member. Both the Council on Foreign Relations and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences count her as a member at the present time.
Judy has penned the book This Is Judy Woodruff in the White House, in which she discusses her time spent working as a journalist and the book’s title refers to the title of the book.
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