biography
| sex:
| female
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| lived:
| (1931– )
|
| biography:
| Television journalist and interviewer, born in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. She studied at Sarah Lawrence College, and began work for the National Broadcasting Company's publicity department, then moved to the Today Show. Successful despite a slight lisp (later parodied on Saturday Night Live), she developed the reputation for intelligent and probing - if not confrontational - interviews. In 1976, ABC gave her a million-dollar-a-year contract making her the highest-paid television journalist at the time and the opportunity to be the first woman co-presenting the network evening news. However, under pressure from her co-host Harry Reasoner, the network eased her out (1979). She then moved to ABC's 20/20, where she became co-presenter with Hugh Downs (1984). Her occasional Barbara Walters Specials (1976) established her as one of television's most skilled interviewers, known for her ability to elicit candid remarks from normally wary subjects, and she also helped break the stereotype of women television journalists as merely pretty faces. |
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