Biography of Barbara Walters Essay Example

and salary. Among the most outspoken were Walter Cronkite and Walters' own ABC coanchor Harry Reasoner.

Critics also remained skeptical of Walters' validity as a credible Journalist. Furthermore, because of her slight lisp, Walters was famously parodied as "Baba Wawa" on Saturday Night Live by the late comedian Gilda Radner. In December 1976, Walters launched the first Barbara Walters Special, which featured President and First Lady Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter. The following year, she set precedent by arranging the first Joint interview with Prime Minister Menachem Begin of Israel and President Anwar Sadat of Egypt. In 1979, Walters became a part-time correspondent for the ABC news magazine rogram 20/20.

She scored an exclusive interview with Richard Nixon in 1980 (his first TV interview since his resignation in 1974). In 1981, Walters' perennial pre-oscar interview program premiered (with actress Katharine Hepburn), and, in 1984, she signed on as 20/20's full-time cohost. ln 1995, Walters conducted the first interview with Christopher Reeve after the horseback riding accident that left him paralyzed. The following April, the broadcast received the prestigious George Foster Peabody Award. Walters next endeavor was as co-executive producer and cohost of The View ?” a mid-morning talk show that premiered in August 1997.

The program showcased the unique perspectives of five different women, including Chinese-American reporter Lisa Ling, 26; African-American attorney Star Jones, 38; Portuguese-American Joy Behar, 54. In 1999, Walters' two-hour-long exclusive with the former White House intern and Bill Clinton paramour Monica Lewinsky made broadcasting history as the highest-rated news program ever broadcast on a single network. Her other notable interviews range from controversial fgures like Jack Kevorkian to political leaders like Fidel

Castro. Currently, Walters holds the notable distinction of having interviewed every