George Watson papers

Journalist George Watson (1936-2023), who worked as a television correspondent, broadcast producer, and network executive for more than 40 years, retired as vice president of ABC News and was then its longest-serving Washington bureau chief. While attending Harvard College, he was managing editor of the Harvard Crimson and graduated with honors in American History and Literature. After attending Harvard, Watson became a reporter for the Detroit News and left to attend the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. After graduating from Columbia University, Watson joined the Washington Post as a reporter.

In 1962, he began his career in broadcasting at ABC News in Washington, D.C., where he worked as a writer for the radio broadcast "Edward P. Morgan and the News." Between 1965-1968, he was an ABC News correspondent and was shortly thereafter named correspondent and bureau chief in Moscow. On special assignment in 1968 and 1970, Watson covered some of the heaviest fighting in Vietnam and Cambodia. Watson was named chief correspondent and bureau chief in London in 1970. For the next six years, he covered major news events around the world from his base in Britain, including President Nixon's trip to Moscow, the Middle East war of 1973, and the conflict in Northern Ireland. His ABC News special "Terror in Northern Ireland" won an Overseas Press Club Award for Best Foreign Affairs Documentary. While in London, he was president of the Association of American Correspondents.

After ten years overseas as a foreign correspondent, Watson returned to Washington, D.C. in 1975 as ABC's White House correspondent. In 1976, he moved into network news management and was named a vice president and Washington bureau chief. In 1980, Watson left ABC News to become vice president and managing editor of the Cable News Network (CNN), where he was engaged in its launch and early development. Watson was the executive-in-charge of political party convention coverage, and reported on-air during CNN's first political convention in 1980. He also moderated three one-hour interview programs on a weekly basis for the new network.

Watson returned to ABC News in 1981 and served for the next four years as vice president of ABC News in New York. He was the first network executive responsible for overseeing the policies, standards, and practices that apply to news programs. In that capacity he developed and produced "Viewpoint," a program designed to provide a forum for viewer criticism of ABC News in particular and broadcast journalism in general. During his supervision of "Viewpoint," the program won every major award in broadcasting, including an Emmy, the George Foster Peabody Award, and the duPont-Columbia Award for Excellence in Broadcast Journalism.

In 1985 Watson returned to Washington for his second tour there as vice president and bureau chief. During his tenure, he was heavily involved in the conflict between the press and the Pentagon over war coverage; with the Supreme Court over early release decisions; in the creation of "Nightline;" in Congressional hearings about election coverage, exit polls, and the timing the broadcast of election results; and with the coverage of the war with Iraq over its invasion of Kuwait.

Watson was a director of the Committee to Protect Journalists for more than a decade, from 1982-1993. He formally retired as bureau chief in 1993 and for the next eight years, returned to on-air broadcasting as senior contributing editor, supplying commentary and analysis for both radio and the network's late night broadcast, "World News Now."

George Watson married Ellen Havican Bradley, and they together had two children, Ellen Havican Watson and George Henry Watson III. Watson died June 1, 2023.