Marlene Sanders began her broadcast journalism

Journalism

Journalism is the practice of investigation and reporting of events, issues and trends to a broad audience in a timely fashion. Though there are many variations of journalism, the ideal is to inform the intended audience. Along with covering organizations and institutions such as government and...

 career in 1955 working for Mike Wallace

Mike Wallace (journalist)

Myron Leon "Mike" Wallace is an American journalist, former game show host, actor and media personality. During his 60+ year career, he has interviewed a wide range of prominent newsmakers....

 of CBS, as his local producer. In those days, women were usually in the newsroom solely to perform secretarial functions.

Sanders is a female pioneer in broadcasting

Broadcasting

Broadcasting is the distribution of audio and video content to a dispersed audience via any audio visual medium. Receiving parties may include the general public or a relatively large subset of thereof...

 and she has a number of firsts to her credit: the first woman to cover the Vietnam war

Vietnam War

The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...

 from the field; the first woman anchor of a nightly newscast for a major network; and eventually the first woman vice president of the ABC News

ABC News

ABC News is the news gathering and broadcasting division of American broadcast television network ABC, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company...

 division.

Sanders later became an Emmy Award

Emmy Award

An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...

–winning correspondent, writer, producer and broadcast-news executive.

Sanders is the mother of Jeffrey Toobin

Jeffrey Toobin

Jeffrey Ross Toobin is an American lawyer, author, and legal analyst for CNN and The New Yorker.-Early life and education:...

 (with husband Jerome Toobin

Jerome Toobin

Jerome Toobin was a television producer. He was Bill Moyers’ producer, including as the first executive producer of Bill Moyers Journal on PBS in the 1970s, and at CBS...

 who died in 1984), lawyer, author, and CNN

CNN

Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...

legal analyst.