Lynn Sherr (born March 4, 1942) is an American broadcast journalist and author, best known as a correspondent for the ABC news magazine 20/20.

Lynn Sherr
Sherr at the 2014 National Book Festival
Sherr at the 2014 National Book Festival
Born (1942-03-04) March 4, 1942 (age 82)
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
OccupationBroadcast journalist
EducationLower Merion High School
Alma materWellesley College
GenresHistory, biography
Notable awards1994 George Foster Peabody Award

Life

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Sherr was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and attended Lower Merion High School in Ardmore. She received a B.A. from Wellesley College.

She was a freelance host at WNET-TV in New York City, then staff. She worked for the Associated Press and WCBS-TV. In 1977, she was the guest host of the MacNeil–Lehrer Report while Robert MacNeil was absent, and has hosted a number of PBS specials. In 1983–85 she was a reporter/editor for Condé Nast. In 2008, she left the television network ABC after working with them for 31 years. She is the author of Outside the Box: A Memoir, published in September 2006, which chronicles her life on and off TV, including her husband's death from cancer as well as her own battle with colon cancer.[1][2]

She received a 1994 George Foster Peabody Award along with producer Alan B. Goldberg for the "Hunger Inside" a 20/20 documentary about extreme anorexia.

Feminism

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Sherr is a feminist.

With Jurate Kazickas, Sherr published the Liberated Women's Appointment Calendar and Survival Handbook annually for ten years, beginning in 1971.

Also with Kazickas, Sherr published the American Woman's Gazetteer in 1976, listing places in the US where women had featured in historic events; an updated version, titled Susan B. Anthony Slept Here, was published in 1994.[3]

Sherr has twice (in 1989 and 1992) been the recipient of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America's (PPFA) Margaret Sanger Award (known as the "Maggie"), which is awarded to journalists for "exceptional coverage of reproductive rights and health care issues" in the view of PPFA.[4] She also hosted PPFA's Maggie Awards luncheon in 2010.[4]

Sherr has rejected calls for a "new feminism" and remarked, "What's wrong with the old feminism?"[5] She strongly criticized Sarah Palin for calling herself a feminist: "What, exactly, has she done legislatively for other women? What paths has she forged?"[5]

Sherr was featured in the Jewish Women's Archive web feature Jewish Women and the Feminist Revolution.[6]

Published works

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Title Year ISBN Publisher Subject matter Interviews, presentations, and reviews Comments
Susan B. Anthony Slept Here: A Guide to American Women's Landmarks 1994 ISBN 9780812922233 Three Rivers Press Co-author with Jurate Kazickas
Failure Is Impossible: Susan B. Anthony in Her Own Words 1996 ISBN 9780307765291 Crown Publishing Group Susan B. Anthony Booknotes interview with Sherr on Failure Is Impossible, May 5, 1995, C-SPAN
Tall Blondes: A Book About Giraffes 1997 ISBN 9780836227697 Andrews McMeel Publishing Giraffes
America the Beautiful: The Stirring True Story Behind Our Nations's Favorite Song 2001 ISBN 9781586480851 PublicAffairs America the Beautiful Discussion with Sherr on America the Beautiful, November 27, 2001, C-SPAN
Outside the Box: A Memoir 2006 ISBN 9781605297866 Rodale Press Presentation by Sherr on Outside the Box, October 4, 2006, C-SPAN
Swim: Why We Love the Water 2012 ISBN 9781610390477 PublicAffairs Swimming
Sally Ride: America's First Woman in Space 2014 ISBN 9781476725789 Simon and Schuster Sally Ride Presentation by Sherr on Sally Ride, June 25, 2014, C-SPAN
Presentation by Sherr on Sally Ride, August 30, 2014, C-SPAN
Presentation by Sherr on Sally Ride, February 14, 2015, C-SPAN

References

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  1. ^ "Sitemap".
  2. ^ Ariens, Chris (7 October 2008). "Lynn Sherr on Leaving ABC: "It's a Very Different Audience, with Very Different Demands"". TVNewser. Retrieved 16 November 2016.
  3. ^ Love, Barbara J. (September 22, 2006). Feminists Who Changed America, 1963-1975. University of Illinois Press. p. 247. ISBN 978-0-252-03189-2.
  4. ^ a b "Rachel Maddow, Glamour Magazine, and the AJC's Cynthia Tucker Among Planned Parenthood's 2010 Maggie Award Winners". www.plannedparenthood.org.
  5. ^ a b "TVNewser | Jobs in TV News". www.mediabistro.com. Archived from the original on December 15, 2009.
  6. ^ "Feminism | Jewish Women's Archive". jwa.org.
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