The Media Interview

Barbara Walters was on CBC’s The Hour recently to talk about her new book Audition, and host George Stroumboulopoulos asked her: Stroumboulopoulos: Who would you like to be your last interview? Walters: (long pause) Osama bin Laden… [banter] …I have said that I don’t want to get any more big “gets,” but if Osama bin [...]

Barbara Walters on one of the main reasons she stopped doing the TV newsmagazine 20/20 back in 2004: …it seemed that every celebrity, every murderer…had a lawyer or a press agent all interviewing the interviewer to determine where they could get the most airings for their clients, what kind of questions would be asked, and [...]

In Cindy Adams column in the New York Post today, she quotes Barbara Walters on why, when Paris Hilton’s people withdrew demands for payment for the heiress’s first post-jail interview, Walters turned down a free interview. After all, ABC had originally offered $100,000 for the “get”: Look, I’ve done prison interviews before, but people like [...]

Finally got to watch the second half of the Barbara Walters special 30 Mistakes in 30 Years. Like the first half of this prime-time special it was first and foremost an entertainment show, but there were useful tidbits throughout. Walters directly addressed the issue of crying in this part of the special, acknowledging that “I [...]

Happened upon a Barbara Walters special last night: 30 Mistakes in 30 Years. She calls it a “record of regrets” – some hers, some her guests – and I was hoping for some candid talk about the interview process. But being a prime time special, this first of two shows was really more of a [...]