Cynthia McFadden (born May 27, 1956) is an American television journalist who is currently the senior legal and investigative correspondent for

NBC News NBC News is the news division of the American broadcast television network NBC. The division operates under NBCUniversal Television and Streaming, a division of NBCUniversal, which is, in turn, a subsidiary of Comcast. The news division's var ...

. She was an

anchor An anchor is a device, normally made of metal , used to secure a vessel to the bed of a body of water to prevent the craft from drifting due to wind or current. The word derives from Latin ''ancora'', which itself comes from the Greek ἄγ ...

and correspondent for

ABC News ABC News is the news division of the American broadcast network ABC. Its flagship program is the daily evening newscast ''ABC World News Tonight, ABC World News Tonight with David Muir''; other programs include Breakfast television, morning ...

who co-anchored ''

Nightline ''Nightline'' (or ''ABC News Nightline'') is ABC News' late-night television news program broadcast on ABC in the United States with a franchised formula to other networks and stations elsewhere in the world. Created by Roone Arledge, the progra ...

'', and occasionally appeared on ABC News special ''

Primetime Prime time or the peak time is the block of broadcast programming taking place during the middle of the evening for a television show. It is mostly targeted towards adults (and sometimes families). It is used by the major television networks to ...

''. She was with ABC News from 1994 to 2014 and joined NBC News in March 2014.

Biography

Education

Born in

Lewiston, Maine Lewiston (; ; officially the City of Lewiston, Maine) is List of cities in Maine, the second largest city in Maine and the most central city in Androscoggin County, Maine, Androscoggin County. The city lies halfway between Augusta, Maine, August ...

, McFadden graduated

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal a ...

and

summa cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sou ...

from

Bowdoin College Bowdoin College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Brunswick, Maine. When Bowdoin was chartered in 1794, Maine was still a part of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The college offers 34 majors and 36 minors, as well as several joint eng ...

Brunswick, Maine Brunswick is a town in Cumberland County, Maine, United States. The population was 21,756 at the 2020 United States Census. Part of the Portland-South Portland-Biddeford metropolitan area, Brunswick is home to Bowdoin College, the Bowdoin Intern ...

, in 1978. Afterward, she received her

Juris Doctor The Juris Doctor (J.D. or JD), also known as Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D., JD, D.Jur., or DJur), is a graduate-entry professional degree in law and one of several Doctor of Law degrees. The J.D. is the standard degree obtained to practice law ...

degree from

Columbia Law School Columbia Law School (Columbia Law or CLS) is the law school of Columbia University, a private Ivy League university in New York City. Columbia Law is widely regarded as one of the most prestigious law schools in the world and has always ranked i ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

in 1984.

Career

Early career and time as ABC News correspondent

From 1984 to 1991, McFadden was the executive producer of

Fred Friendly Fred W. Friendly (born Ferdinand Friendly Wachenheimer, October 30, 1915 – March 3, 1998) was a president of CBS News and the creator, along with Edward R. Murrow, of the documentary television program ''See It Now''. He originated the concept ...

's Media and Society seminars based at Columbia, many of which were broadcast on

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...

. She then joined the Courtroom Television Network as an anchor and producer in 1991, its inaugural year. After working there for several years, she joined ABC News in 1994 as the network's legal correspondent, covering amongst other subjects the

O. J. Simpson trial O is the fifteenth letter of the modern Latin alphabet. O may also refer to: Letters * Օ օ, (Unicode: U+0555, U+0585) a letter in the Armenian alphabet * Ο ο, Omicron, (Greek), a letter in the Greek alphabet * O (Cyrillic), a letter of the ...

Promotion to anchor

McFadden became an anchor of ''Primetime'' in 2004 and, having previously substituted for

Ted Koppel Edward James Martin Koppel (born February 8, 1940) is a British-born American broadcast journalist, best known as the anchor for '' Nightline'', from the program's inception in 1980 until 2005. Before ''Nightline'', he spent 20 years as a broad ...

on several occasions, an anchor of ''Nightline'' on November 28, 2005, along with

Martin Bashir Martin Henry Bashir (born 19 January 1963) is a British journalist. He was a presenter on British and American television and for the BBC's ''Panorama'' programme, for which he interviewed Diana, Princess of Wales in 1995. Although the intervie ...

and

Terry Moran Terry Moran is an American journalist, currently Senior National Correspondent at ABC News. Based in Washington, D.C., Moran covers national politics and policy, reporting from the Trump White House, the Supreme Court, and the campaign trail fo ...

, following the longtime anchor's final broadcast. Bashir left the program due to fallout from credibility problems from the disputed and controversial reports on singer

Michael Jackson Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Dubbed the "King of Pop", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. Over a ...

and was replaced by

Bill Weir William Francis Weir (born December 19, 1967) is an American television journalist based in Manhattan. Weir is a correspondent and anchor for CNN, and the creator and host of the global documentary serie"The Wonder List with Bill Weir."He is the ...

in 2010. The three tended to anchor in shifts, leading the show by themselves every third night. While ''Nightline'' was threatened with cancellation in 2002 under Koppel's long-form journalism format, it saw a resurgence in its ratings and prominence after switching to more celebrity topics, pop culture and entertainment news, often competing for higher numbers with the ''

Late Show with David Letterman The ''Late Show with David Letterman'' is an American late-night talk show hosted by David Letterman on CBS, the first iteration of the The Late Show (franchise), ''Late Show'' franchise. The show debuted on August 30, 1993, and was produced by ...

''. As anchor, McFadden conducted a number of significant interviews including ones with celebrities such as

Clint Eastwood Clinton Eastwood Jr. (born May 31, 1930) is an American actor and film director. After achieving success in the Western TV series '' Rawhide'', he rose to international fame with his role as the "Man with No Name" in Sergio Leone's "''Doll ...

Paul McCartney Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained worldwide fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John Lennon. One ...

and

Judge Judy Sheindlin Judith Susan Sheindlin (''née'' Blum; born October 21, 1942), known professionally as Judge Judy, is an American court show arbitrator, media personality, television producer, author, women's advancement philanthropist and former prosecutor an ...

, past and present world leaders such as

Pervez Musharraf General Pervez Musharraf ( ur, , Parvez Muśharraf; born 11 August 1943) is a former Pakistani politician and four-star general of the Pakistan Army who became the tenth president of Pakistan after the successful military takeover of the ...

and

Tony Blair Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He previously served as Leader of th ...

, and five with Secretary of State

Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, diplomat, and former lawyer who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a United States sen ...

Move from ABC to NBC

On March 29, 2014, after two decades with ABC News, with the last nine years as a ''Nightline'' anchor, McFadden left and joined

. She serves as the senior legal and investigative correspondent, contributing to NBC's investigative unit across all NBC News platforms.

Other work

McFadden is a contributor for

wowOwow wowOwow was a U.S.-based website publication run by Joni Evans. History The website was launched by chief executive officer Joni Evans, Mary Wells Lawrence, Liz Smith, Lesley Stahl and Peggy Noonan in March 2008. In September 2010 the proje ...

.com, a web site launched in 2008 for women to discuss culture, politics and gossip. She has additionally hosted or co-hosted a number of documentaries and specials on ABC. She is co-chair of the board of

IWMF The International Women's Media Foundation (IWMF), located in Washington, D.C., is an organization working internationally to elevate the status of women in the media. The IWMF has created programs to help women in the media develop practical so ...

(International Women's Media Foundation).

Personal life

McFadden married Michael John Davies, editor and publisher of the ''

Hartford Courant The ''Hartford Courant'' is the largest daily newspaper in the U.S. state of Connecticut, and is considered to be the oldest continuously published newspaper in the United States. A morning newspaper serving most of the state north of New Haven ...

'', on September 9, 1989; they were divorced in 1996. She has a son with ''Foreign Affairs'' editor

James Hoge James Fulton Hoge Jr. (born December 25, 1935) was the editor of '' Foreign Affairs'' and the Peter G. Peterson Chair at the Council on Foreign Relations. His principal areas of expertise are U.S. foreign policy and international economic policy. ...

, Spencer Graham McFadden Hoge, who was born in 1998 and named after the actor

Spencer Tracy Spencer Bonaventure Tracy (April 5, 1900 – June 10, 1967) was an American actor. He was known for his natural performing style and versatility. One of the major stars of Hollywood's Golden Age, Tracy was the first actor to win two cons ...

. She is the

executrix An executor is someone who is responsible for executing, or following through on, an assigned task or duty. The feminine form, executrix, may sometimes be used. Overview An executor is a legal term referring to a person named by the maker of a ...

of the estate of longtime friend actress

Katharine Hepburn Katharine Houghton Hepburn (May 12, 1907 – June 29, 2003) was an American actress in film, stage, and television. Her career as a Hollywood leading lady spanned over 60 years. She was known for her headstrong independence, spirited perso ...

. She has

Crohn's disease Crohn's disease is a type of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) that may affect any segment of the gastrointestinal tract. Symptoms often include abdominal pain, diarrhea (which may be bloody if inflammation is severe), fever, abdominal distension ...

and has done public service announcements to raise awareness of the condition. McFadden practices

Transcendental Meditation Transcendental Meditation (TM) is a form of silent mantra meditation advocated by the Transcendental Meditation movement. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi created the technique in India in the mid-1950s. Advocates of TM claim that the technique promotes a ...

and has supported the work of the

David Lynch Foundation The David Lynch Foundation for Consciousness-Based Education and World Peace (or simply DLF) is a global charitable foundation with offices in New York City, Los Angeles, and Fairfield, Iowa. It was founded by film director and Transcendental Me ...

. In October 2020 ''

Town and Country magazine ''Town and Country Magazine'' was an 18th-century London-based publication that featured tales of scandals and affairs between members of London's upper classes. History ''Town and Country Magazine'' was founded by Archibald Hamilton in 1769. ...

'' published an account McFadden and her son Spencer wrote about their road trip from New York City to California, where he was a student. The account described the accommodations they had to take due to the Covid 19 virus. Spencer, having grown up in New York City, had not learned to drive, until he moved to California. McFadden encouraged him to earn a

driver's license A driver's license is a legal authorization, or the official document confirming such an authorization, for a specific individual to operate one or more types of motorized vehicles—such as motorcycles, cars, trucks, or buses—on a public ...

by promising him a new car.

Awards

George Foster Peabody Award The George Foster Peabody Awards (or simply Peabody Awards or the Peabodys) program, named for the American businessman and philanthropist George Peabody, honor the most powerful, enlightening, and invigorating stories in television, radio, and ...

(1985) *Cine Golden Eagles (2) *Ohio State Award *Silver Gavels (2) from the American Bar Association *Grand Award of the New York Festival *Blue Ribbon of the American Film Festival *Earned an

Emmy The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

in 2020 * Gerald Loeb Award for Video in 2020

References

External links

*
Biography at abcnews.comCynthia McFadden
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wowOwow
{{DEFAULTSORT:McFadden, Cynthia 1956 births Living people ABC News personalities American television news anchors American television reporters and correspondents Bowdoin College alumni Columbia Law School alumni Columbia University alumni People from Lewiston, Maine American women television journalists Gerald Loeb Award winners for Audio and Video 21st-century American women