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Barbara Walters to retire from US TV - but she's not going just yet Barbara Walters to retire from US TV - but she's not going just yet
(4 months later)
Barbara Walters has never done things by half measures on television, and that will certainly be the case in her leaving of it. The grande dame of American TV journalism announced her retirement on Monday, with the proviso that her last day in front of camera will not be until May 2014.Barbara Walters has never done things by half measures on television, and that will certainly be the case in her leaving of it. The grande dame of American TV journalism announced her retirement on Monday, with the proviso that her last day in front of camera will not be until May 2014.
Walters' long-expected confirmation that she is bowing out is in fact a harbinger of the exact opposite. Over the next 12 months, ABC, the network that has hosted her for the past 37 years, will be awash with Barbara Walters hagiography.Walters' long-expected confirmation that she is bowing out is in fact a harbinger of the exact opposite. Over the next 12 months, ABC, the network that has hosted her for the past 37 years, will be awash with Barbara Walters hagiography.
There will be the final interview with the Obamas (she has interviewed every sitting US president since Richard Nixon), a series of final Barbara Walters specials and a primetime retrospective of her TV career spanning more than half a century. As fellow ABC anchor George Stephanopoulos put it in a tweet: "Congrats to Barbara Walters on a spectacular, path-breaking career. Can't wait to celebrate this whole year."There will be the final interview with the Obamas (she has interviewed every sitting US president since Richard Nixon), a series of final Barbara Walters specials and a primetime retrospective of her TV career spanning more than half a century. As fellow ABC anchor George Stephanopoulos put it in a tweet: "Congrats to Barbara Walters on a spectacular, path-breaking career. Can't wait to celebrate this whole year."
Setting the tone for what is to come, the Walt Disney Company, which owns ABC, rolled out its big guns to hear Walters announce her future departure on The View, the morning chat show she co-created in 1997. Bob Iger, Disney's chairman and chief executive, recalled how he first met her in 1976 when he was a lowly production assistant and was asked to deliver something to her dressing room.Setting the tone for what is to come, the Walt Disney Company, which owns ABC, rolled out its big guns to hear Walters announce her future departure on The View, the morning chat show she co-created in 1997. Bob Iger, Disney's chairman and chief executive, recalled how he first met her in 1976 when he was a lowly production assistant and was asked to deliver something to her dressing room.
"You were extremely nice, you put me at ease, and from then on you called me Jim. My name is Bob," Iger said."You were extremely nice, you put me at ease, and from then on you called me Jim. My name is Bob," Iger said.
Walters, 83, recalled how she was first hired in 1961 on a 13-week contract with the NBC Today Show. She said there was no-one as surprised by her success as she was: "I wasn't beautiful like many of the women on the show before me, and I had trouble pronouncing my Rs – I still do."Walters, 83, recalled how she was first hired in 1961 on a 13-week contract with the NBC Today Show. She said there was no-one as surprised by her success as she was: "I wasn't beautiful like many of the women on the show before me, and I had trouble pronouncing my Rs – I still do."
But she said she was proud to have permanently changed the description on women on the show from "girls" to "co-hosts". In 1976, she was made the first female anchor on an evening network news programme, on rival ABC News.But she said she was proud to have permanently changed the description on women on the show from "girls" to "co-hosts". In 1976, she was made the first female anchor on an evening network news programme, on rival ABC News.
A sequence of clips aired on The View as a foretaste of the blitz that lies ahead showed some of Walters' most memorable moments: crossing the Bay of Pigs with Fidel Castro; interviewing together the two previous enemies Anwar Sadat of Egypt and Menachem Begin of Israel; asking Boris Yeltsin on air whether he drank too much and Vladimir Putin if he had ever ordered anyone to be killed.A sequence of clips aired on The View as a foretaste of the blitz that lies ahead showed some of Walters' most memorable moments: crossing the Bay of Pigs with Fidel Castro; interviewing together the two previous enemies Anwar Sadat of Egypt and Menachem Begin of Israel; asking Boris Yeltsin on air whether he drank too much and Vladimir Putin if he had ever ordered anyone to be killed.
"It's been a joyful , rewarding, challenging, fascinating and occasionally bumpy ride and I wouldn't change a thing. It's my decision, I've been thinking about it for a long time, and this is what I want to do," she said."It's been a joyful , rewarding, challenging, fascinating and occasionally bumpy ride and I wouldn't change a thing. It's my decision, I've been thinking about it for a long time, and this is what I want to do," she said.
Not everyone though has bought into the veneration of the "ground-breaker" and "pioneer" that will set the tone for the Barbara Walters farewell tour in the coming year. Alex Pareene of Salon said she was "probably as responsible as any other living person for the ridiculous and sorry state of American television journalism … Her entire public life has been an extended exercise in sycophancy and unalloyed power worship."Not everyone though has bought into the veneration of the "ground-breaker" and "pioneer" that will set the tone for the Barbara Walters farewell tour in the coming year. Alex Pareene of Salon said she was "probably as responsible as any other living person for the ridiculous and sorry state of American television journalism … Her entire public life has been an extended exercise in sycophancy and unalloyed power worship."
Pareene reminded Salon's readers that Walters was buddies of such luminaries as "war criminal Henry Kissinger" and "make-believe TV tycoon Donald Trump". It helped when she was securing a 2011 interview with Syrian president Bashar al-Assad that she was his friend too.Pareene reminded Salon's readers that Walters was buddies of such luminaries as "war criminal Henry Kissinger" and "make-believe TV tycoon Donald Trump". It helped when she was securing a 2011 interview with Syrian president Bashar al-Assad that she was his friend too.
"Her legacy as a breaker of barriers is sound," Pareene concluded. "Her habit of using her position to protect and cover for some of the worst abusers of power in the world should also be remembered as we are forced to spend the next year celebrating her achievements.""Her legacy as a breaker of barriers is sound," Pareene concluded. "Her habit of using her position to protect and cover for some of the worst abusers of power in the world should also be remembered as we are forced to spend the next year celebrating her achievements."
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