Van Gordon Sauter


Van Gordon Sauter is a television executive who served as the president of CBS News and the president of Fox News. He is also a member of the Brown political family of California.

Personal Life

Sauter graduated with a bachelor's degree in English from Ohio University in 1957 and with a master's degree in journalism from the University of Missouri in 1959. After leaving college, he worked as a reporter and staff writer for newspapers in Massachusetts, Detroit, and Chicago.

Career

Sauter was a two-time president of CBS News, serving as president of CBS News from 1982 until 1983 and again in 1986. He held many other positions at CBS including being an executive producer for CBS News radio from 1970 until 1972, Paris bureau chief of CBS News from 1975 until 1976, and president of CBS Sports from 1980 until 1982. He has been married to former California Treasurer Kathleen Brown, the sister and daughter of former California governors Jerry Brown and Pat Brown. Sauter resigned from CBS News in 1986. After leaving CBS News, he helped develop a talk show for Jesse Jackson.
In 1992, he was hired to be the president of the new Fox News division. He left Fox News when he became heavily involved in his wife's campaign for governor.