Diane Sawyer, like most news anchors and reporters, was exhausted last night. But Sawyer, who covered Hurricane Sandy in depth right before election night, may have taken too much onto herself, and it showed in a big way on air last night.
Sawyer is battling rumors today that she was drunk or high during her coverage of the election after she slurred her words, repeated herself, and mispronounced Obama’s name. Reps for ABC say she was simply extremely tired, which accounted for her propping herself up on her hands against the desk at varying points during the broadcast.
“Diane’s been up for days and she’s had many sleepless nights. She was covering the hurricane and then preparing for the election broadcast. If you knew Diane you’d realise she’s one of the hardest working people on television. She likes to cram things in, she likes to have every fact at her finger tips…and I think that came at the expense of the broadcast,” a source told the Daily Mail.
Sawyer wasn’t the only exhausted person covering the big night; Brian Williams seemed to have a bit less patience than usual during interviews, hardly cracking a smile all night and letting his professional news anchor guard down a little when he talked about “weed all over the ballots”. He also reamed Donald Trump, who was live-tweeting during the election results, saying, “Donald Trump, who has driven well past the last exit to relevance and peered into something closer to irresponsible here, is tweeting tonight.”
Diane Sawyer,drunken election results ABC blames tiredness 4 slurring.I get tired& start slurring when I drink too much.#iwouldahadtobdrunk2
OMG! Diane Sawyer was drunk af last night. Just watched the video on youtube and she you slurring EVERY WORD!! lmaooo
There has never been anything as insane in terms of election coverage than Diane Sawyer on #ABC right now. Slurring mess. #election2012
Diane Sawyer is slurring her words like a drunken floosy and Barbara Walters (thankfully) might as well be a mute. #Election2012