Gordon Peterson is an American broadcast journalist

Media of the United States

Media of the United States consist of several different types of communications media: television, radio, cinema, newspapers, magazines, and Internet-based Web sites. The U.S...

 and Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

-based television news anchor

Anchor

An anchor is a device, normally made of metal, that is used to connect a vessel to the bed of a body of water to prevent the vessel from drifting due to wind or current. The word derives from Latin ancora, which itself comes from the Greek ἄγκυρα .Anchors can either be temporary or permanent...

. He is the 6 p.m. co-anchor for ABC

American Broadcasting Company

The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...

 affiliate WJLA-TV

WJLA-TV

WJLA-TV, channel 7, is the ABC affiliated television station in Washington, D.C.. It is the flagship station of the Allbritton Communications Company, which also operates local cable station NewsChannel 8. The two stations share broadcast facilities in the Rosslyn section of Arlington, Virginia...

 and is also moderator and producer of Inside Washington

Inside Washington

Inside Washington is a political roundtable show hosted by WJLA news anchor and chief political reporter Gordon Peterson. It is produced by Allbritton, owner of WJLA, and distributed to PBS stations nationwide by American Public Television...

, a political roundtable discussion about current political events going on in Washington. He has won multiple Emmy Awards during his broadcast career.

Life and career

Peterson has worked at Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

 local news stations for most of his career. He worked for WUSA

WUSA (TV)

WUSA is a television station broadcasting on channel 9 in Washington, D.C.. Owned by the Gannett Company, WUSA is an affiliate of the CBS television network, and the longest-tenured affiliate of that network...

 (Channel 9) as the news anchor for 35 years before switching to rival station WJLA

WJLA-TV

WJLA-TV, channel 7, is the ABC affiliated television station in Washington, D.C.. It is the flagship station of the Allbritton Communications Company, which also operates local cable station NewsChannel 8. The two stations share broadcast facilities in the Rosslyn section of Arlington, Virginia...

 (Channel 7) after station management for the former station decided to cut his airtime. Peterson graduated from the College of the Holy Cross

College of the Holy Cross

The College of the Holy Cross is an undergraduate Roman Catholic liberal arts college located in Worcester, Massachusetts, USA...

 and attended Georgetown University

Georgetown University

Georgetown University is a private, Jesuit, research university whose main campus is in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic university in the United States...

 without finishing a degree program. He became news director for AM radio station WNEB

WNEB

WNEB is a Catholic radio station broadcasting religious programming. Licensed to Worcester, Massachusetts, USA, the station serves the Worcester area. The station is currently owned by Emmanuel Communications, Inc. and features EWTN programming....

 in his hometown of Worcester, Massachusetts

Worcester, Massachusetts

Worcester is a city and the county seat of Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. Named after Worcester, England, as of the 2010 Census the city's population is 181,045, making it the second largest city in New England after Boston....

 before moving to CBS

CBS

CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...

's Boston affiliate, WEEI

WEEI

WEEI is a sports radio station in Boston, Massachusetts, that broadcasts on 850 kHz from a transmitter in Needham, Massachusetts, and is owned by Entercom Communications. The station is one of the top-rated sports talk radio stations in the nation. Studios are located in Brighton, Massachusetts...

. He also served as an officer in the United States Marine Corps

United States Marine Corps

The United States Marine Corps is a branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for providing power projection from the sea, using the mobility of the United States Navy to deliver combined-arms task forces rapidly. It is one of seven uniformed services of the United States...

.

Peterson first arrived in Washington in the fall of 1969, working as a reporter for both WTOP radio and television, and within two years was named co-anchor with fellow staffer Max Robinson

Max Robinson

Max Robinson was an American broadcast journalist, and ABC News World News Tonight co-anchor. He was the first African American broadcast network news anchor in the United States and one of the first television journalists to die of AIDS...

 of The Big News, which later evolved into Eyewitness News

Eyewitness News

Eyewitness News is a style of news broadcasting used by local television stations in different markets across the United States. It refers to a particular style of television newscast with an emphasis on visual elements and action video...

. He would remain the main anchor at Channel 9 for 33 years amid many changes on and off-camera. For most of that period he co-anchored with Maureen Bunyan

Maureen Bunyan

Maureen Bunyan is an Aruban-American Washington, D.C.-based television journalist. Currently she is the lead co-anchor at WJLA-TV.Bunyan is a founder and board member of IWMF , a founder of the National Association of Black Journalists...

, with whom he was reunited on the 6 p.m. news on WJLA-TV in December 2004.

External links

• Biography at WJLA-TV
  WJLA-TV
  WJLA-TV, channel 7, is the ABC affiliated television station in Washington, D.C.. It is the flagship station of the Allbritton Communications Company, which also operates local cable station NewsChannel 8. The two stations share broadcast facilities in the Rosslyn section of Arlington, Virginia...
  
  website.