This is about fake news and real news, sort of.

Back in the eighties, women had made some significant inroads into the male-dominated world of broadcast journalism. Barbara Walters made the jump from the Today show to anchor at the CBS Evening News in 1976. Jessica Savitch had risen through the NBC news ranks to become anchor on several programs, until her untimely death in 1983. And Diane Sawyer was a rising correspondent and morning show host at CBS and then at ABC.

And then there was Phyllis George. After winning the Miss America pageant in 1971, she parlayed her good looks and soft southern charm into a surprising gig in 1975: co-host of The NFL Today on CBS. As one of the first women in television sports, she was wildly successful. In addition to football, she covered the Kentucky Derby and was the star of a TV version of People Magazine. All of which led to her becoming the co-anchor of the CBS Morning News in 1985.

Almost immediately, her agent starting pushing the network to give her increasingly serious topics to cover. Unfortunately, the network obliged. On May 15, 1985, Phyllis George interviewed an unlikely pair of guests: a man named Gary Dotson, who had just been released from prison after serving 6 years for rape, and Cathleen Webb, the victim of that rape who had recently recanted her testimony and wanted Dotson exonerated. After an uncomfortable discussion, George asked her guests to shake hands, to which they hesitantly complied. And then Phyllis George asked, “How about a hug?”

It was one of the most infamous moments in journalism history. And it signaled the end of Phyllis George’s career. She disappeared from the national spotlight and went home to be with her husband, John Y. Brown – the former governor of Kentucky – and their two children, a son named Lincoln and a daughter named Pamela.

Pamela Brown was born in Lexington in 1983. She attended the local public school and then got a journalism degree from UNC Chapel Hill, where she was a reporter for the university’s TV channel. After school she joined the ABC affiliate in Washington, became a Sunday night anchor and was nominated for an Emmy. She reported from the field on Hurricane Sandy and the earthquake in Haiti. In 2013, she joined CNN as a Justice Correspondent, and has since covered the Boston Marathon bombing, San Bernardino, and the terrorist attacks in Brussels and Paris. As a reporter she is the antithesis of her famous mother: tough, no-nonsense, whip-smart and ice-cold-serious.

Over the past year or so, she has earned her way into the epicenter of justice and politics in the United States. She is CNN’s analyst on the Supreme Court, the Justice Department, Law Enforcement and Immigration. She is leading CNN’s investigation into the relationship between the Trump administration and Russia, the recusal of Jeff Sessions, and the wire-tapping-tweet-storm. And, as described on their website, she is “a key fill-in anchor for CNN Newsroom.”

Is she the next Woodward or Bernstein? That might only depend on whether there’s any “there” there. Because if there is, she’ll probably find it.

In the meantime, for those who would cry “fake news” and “alternative facts,” she is their worst nightmare.

Pamela Brown is for real.