(RepublicanNews.org) – Last Friday, veteran news anchor Barbara Walters died at the age of 93. The iconic TV news personality began her career as a writer and researcher for NBC’s “Today” show in the early 1960s. Within a year of starting, Walters became a reporter-at-large, responsible for developing, writing, and editing her own stories. By 1974, Walters became the first female to co-host “Today.”
Two years later, Walters moved to ABC News, where she became the first woman to co-anchor a network evening newscast. At ABC News, Walters conducted the first-ever joint interview with Egypt’s President Anwar Sadat and Prime Minister Menachem Begin of Israel in 1977 when they led their countries to a historic peace accord.
On ABC’s “20/20” and her own specials, Walters went on to interview some of the world’s most notable figures, including British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Cuba’s Fidel Castro, and Russian President Boris Yeltsin.
It was Walters who scored the first interview with then-President George W. Bush after the 9/11 terrorist attack. She was also the first American to interview Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In 1999, Walters conducted the first TV interview with Monica Lewinsky after the scandal that ultimately led to the impeachment of then-President Bill Clinton. According to ABC, that interview was the highest-rated news program ever broadcast by a single network.
Sadly, it was Walters who, in 1997, inflicted “The View” on the American public. For all of her successes, however, Barbara Walters’ passing did prompt some criticism.
During her Sirius XM show, host Megyn Kelly noted that while Barbara Walters enjoyed unprecedented success in her career, her personal life, especially her relationship with her daughter, was far from ideal.
Kelly brought up what Walters wrote in her 2008 memoir “Audition” about her lack of parenting. She said reading the memoir was “jarring.”
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