Diane Sawyer And Katie Couric Despise Each Other Claims New Tell-All Book

A new book claims that news matriarchs Diane Sawyer and Katie Couric absolutely despise each other, according to Upstart Magazine.

The tell-all exposé, “The News Sorority,” by Vanity Faire contributor Sheila Weller explains the cut-throat relationship between three of the top news-making women in the business: Diane Sawyer, Katie Couric and Christiane Amanpour.

The subtitle of the book is, “The (Ongoing, Imperfect, Complicated) Triumph of Women in TV News,” and it seems to say it all.

Reviews of the book state that Katie Couric comes across as “brash, striving, self-absorbed and occasionally insensitive to the realities faced by her less well-compensated workers,” and Diane Sawyer is a “Machiavellian, often-inscrutable workaholic who uses her seductive charm and good looks to professional advantage.”

Here’s a few high (and low) light passages from the book, according to the Daily Beast:

“Sawyer’s famous rivalry with Barbara Walters for ratings-grabbing interview subjects was akin to mortal combat. ‘Barbara and Diane were determined to kill each other – to wipe each other off the face of the earth,’ says an ABC News staffer.”

“When Diane [Sawyer] beat Katie [Couric] on an interview with a 57-year-old woman who’d given birth to twins, Katie mused aloud, according to a person who heard the comment: ‘I wonder who she blew this time to get it.'”

“Sawyer maneuvered her former GMA co-anchor, Charlie Gibson, out of the anchor chair at World News. ‘In the summer of 2009 Charlie had lost his momentum and Diane moved in for the kill… Charlie told people that he was called into David’s [Westin’s] office and told, ‘You’re out.””

Lloyd Grove, who wrote the piece for the Daily Beast, says that thus far he’s heard some “private grumblings” in response to the book, but the three principles, Diane Sawyer, Katie Couric and Christiane Amanpour, have remained “intriguingly silent.”

Overall impressions of the book make it crystal clear just how cut-throat the television news business is. The qualities of Diane Sawyer and Katie Couric seem to include a tough-as-nails work ethic, a willingness to use colleagues and underlings like chattel to get what you want, using sexuality and seduction for your own ends and an ability to coerce and connive your way to the top, seem mandatory for women to reach the pinnacle of the TV news world.

Part of The News Sorority’s description on the book’s Facebook Page really says it all:

“…the compelling desire to report the news – a drive born out of curiosity, empathy, and humanity – must be matched by guts, awesome competitive fervor, and rare strategic savvy.”

image via Deadline and Womens Conference