Bobbie Battista

Barbara Ann "Bobbie" Battista (born July 23, 1952) is an American journalist and a former prominent newscaster with the Cable News Network (CNN). During her 20-year career with the cable news company, Battista anchored numerous programs on CNN, CNN Headline News and CNN International.

Battista earned a bachelor's degree in radio, television, and film production at Northwestern University, and after beginning her career at a radio station in Raleigh, North Carolina, she moved on to be an anchor, reporter and producer with WRAL-TV. She was employed at WRAL before joining CNN in 1981. On November 17, 2006, Battista returned to WRAL to co-anchor a special "reunion" newscast celebrating the station's 50th anniversary.

With CNN, Battista started as an anchor on the CNN Headline News station, and was moved to the main network in 1988, where she served as host of numerous daily and regularly scheduled shows as well as handling anchor and reporting duties. She anchored shows: CNN WorldDay, CNN NewsDay, CNN NewsHour, CNN Daybreak (during Gulf War), CNN PrimeNews and CNN WorldNews. During that time, she also reported on historic events including the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster, the Gulf War, and the September 11 terrorist attacks. Battista also hosted a regular program CNNI World News (1600 CET) on the CNN International network since 1992, when CNN/US show CNN WorldDay was canceled due to expanding of CNN Morning News. Her unique style (crossed eyes and deer-in-the-headlights gaze) was often parodied on Saturday Night Live. She was also very popular in Eastern Europe, especially in Poland, Czechoslovakia and Germany, while she anchored Headline News.

...
Wikipedia