R.I.P. Barbara Walters

[Big Magilla]

Cindy Adams on the death of Barbara Walters:

A dozen years ago she came over. Unhappy at my appearance, she sent her doctor who immediately put me into life-saving surgery. A ruptured appendix.

I was home for months.

Following my merry-go-round, Barbara then . . . slowly . . . inch-by-inch . . . inexplicably began frazzling. She fell faint. A fall. Forgetful. Repetition. Her longtime loyal, devoted chief of staff, George Gapineda — with her about 25 years — accompanied her for tests. Defective nerve. Heart surgery. Doctors. Stents. Operations. In her floor-through apartment, one room became a hospital room. What happened afterwards was slow.

Dinners at home. Adjoining a dining room with service for 50, a large living room with one small table became where we’d do dinner. Fresh orchids.

Guests not. Beyond urgencies, this August marked six years she’d not been outside. We’d visit in her library filled with its photos, awards, magazine covers, stories, pictures with the world’s famous.

I’d bring gossip. We’d dish. Then walking became a wheelchair. Then her conversation stopped. Then the bedroom, then 24-hour-a-day nurses. George, housekeeper Ava, me, we never spoke to anyone about her condition. A code of silence. We saw. We knew. Didn’t always understand. But we knew.

Seems the body can telegraph its life span. A week or 10 days ago, our doctor recognized the end signs.

I’ll tell you one thing — it’s tough to lose a longtime best friend. Number One. Nobody could beat Barbara Walters. But the very day she left us, so did His Holiness the former Pope Emeritus Benedict. For the first time in a quarter of a century, Barbara Walters took second billing.

[Sonic Youth]

Walters will get more lasting coverage, I think. That being said, Magilla is the psychic so what do I know?

Sabin, I think we must accept that - being who we are - we do not have the proper perspective in these matters. Anyway, I hope you have a Happy New Year next September.

[Mister Tee]

I know she was a pioneer as a woman journalist reaching the highest levels, but I’ve always thought of her as being one of the early figures to blur the lines between news and entertainment, which was and continues to be a quite unfortunate development.

This is pretty much my view, as well. Seeing the obits reminds me of how I felt reading Dawn Steel's autobiography They Can Kill You But They Can't Eat You: she kept inviting me to applaud her crashing the boys' club, and I did...but I also kept thinking, You made shitty movies, and led the way to making other movies shittier.

Walters unquestionably burst through barriers for female journalists, and it's not fair to hold her to the standards of today. She almost always faced resistance from male colleagues; Harry Reasoner close to visibly resented having her as co-anchor during the brief World News Tonight stint. But, the fact is, the niche Walters ultimately found for herself -- the celebrity interview -- was often a trivialization of the traditional news format. Not that some of those celebrities (presidents, world leaders) weren't of significance, but, even in that context, she could ask risible questions -- "If you were a tree, what kind of tree would you be?" became an instantly parodied example. And I see a lot of the obits highlighting the interview with Monica Lewinsky as some sort of pinnacle of her career (because, did you see those ratings?) This tells me that, a quarter century later, the news media still fails to understand that that entire story was the biggest waste of a year most of us have every lived through.

She appears to have boosted other women in a major way over these many years, so, even beyond her shattering assorted glass ceilings along the way, she has to be seen as a major figure in diversifying the network news universe. But I remain ambivalent about what her style of journalism has done to the industry as a whole.

[Big Magilla]

Variety has become a complete rag but it's a show biz rag so of course they're going to cover Walters and ignore Benedict.

CNN and will surely cover Bendict's funeral while ignoring Walters'. Their current focus is on New Year's Eve celebrations and will soon go back to politics and the obnoxious Republican coverage that will again dominate the news for a time.

Benedict gets a bum rap as the last conservative pope of which he will hopefully be the last, but he did move things forward somewhat. He excommunicated a number of sexual predator priests including a cardinal who was a close friend and protectorate of John Paul II. Francis went further and removed the bishops who allowed the predators to move around from parish to parish for decades.

Benedict also made it "okay" for a pope to retire, something that was long overdue. I suspect it won't be long before Francis does the same thing, followed routinely by future popes.

John Paul II and Francis both had larger than life personalities. Benedict was a scholar. He is also the only pope I ever met. I was blessed by him twice when I was in Rome in 2010. It was probably my imagination, but I could have sworn he gave me a look that said "didn't I see you here last week" when he blessed me the second time.

[OscarGuy]

Walters was the top topic on Variety, so I'd say since CNN nominally covers world affairs, Pope Palpatine is more important to them.

[Sabin]

Walters will get more lasting coverage, I think. That being said, Magilla is the psychic so what do I know?

[Sonic Youth]

What do I know? All due respect, he seemed so inconsequential.

[Big Magilla]

OMG! Pope Benedict just died!

Babrbara has been overshadowed!

Has she, though? Not in America, I wouldn't think.

Yes, she has. CNN has been giving 75% of their time to the Pope and 25% or less to Barbara.

She has been the second story in the N.Y. Post since passing which had the Utah murder suspect as its top story until the Pope died. Ditto he N.Y. Times, which had the Trump tax story as its no. 1 article before the Pope died. One is an historical event, the other is the passing of an icon. The Pope's death will be in the news at least as long as the Queen's. Barbara's will fade more quickly. Still, she'll probably still make top five or six whose death will be recalled as one of the most prominent passings of the year after the Pope and Queen, along with Sidney Poitier, Angela Lansbury, and Madelyn Albright.

[Sonic Youth]

OMG! Pope Benedict just died!

Babrbara has been overshadowed!

Has she, though? Not in America, I wouldn't think.

[Big Magilla]

OMG! Pope Benedict just died!

Babrbara has been overshadowed!

[Big Magilla]

I knew there would be one more major death before the year ended. Just like her to have the last word, even in death.

Only the imminent death of former Pope Benedict could likely out shadow this one.

I recently read something that said she was in an advanced state of dementia. She'd see some other journalist interviewing someone on TV and ask her caregivers why that person is doing her job. She may have been a pain in the ass, but she was a force to be reckoned with for at least 40 of her 50 years as a journalist.

[danfrank]

I know she was a pioneer as a woman journalist reaching the highest levels, but I’ve always thought of her as being one of the early figures to blur the lines between news and entertainment, which was and continues to be a quite unfortunate development.

[OscarGuy]

https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/30/entertai ... index.html