Barbara Walters: Paris Interview is “Beneath Me”
Barbara Walters reveals that she turned down the first post-jail interview with Paris Hilton because her story is not “important” enough.
Walters, 77, tells the New York Post’s Cindy Adams that, though she had already prepared to interview Hilton, her conscience drove her to change her mind at the last minute.
“Look, I’ve done prison interviews before, but people like the Menendez Brothers were really important news stories,” said the creator and cohost of The View. “This wasn’t. And even though I’d already written my questions, when all that pay-for-play stuff happened, I suddenly felt this was not up to my standard. It…felt…sort of …tawdry.”
“The whole thing somehow was beneath me,” she added.
Walters revealed that it was ABC, not she, who initially wanted the interview. “For them it was ratings. For me it was respect,” she says. “I’m fortunately at a point in my life where I can choose what I want, and this was solely my decision.”
The television news veteran also noted that ABC responded in a “classy” manner by not forcing her into the interview or threatening to give the exclusive away to another newscaster.
“They respected my decision and walked away,” she said. “Some agreed with my decision, some didn’t. For me it was just a question of respect.”
June 25th, 2007 at 10:57 pm
Yeah,I guess The View would be anyone’s benchmark of respect and class- way not to lower yourself!
June 25th, 2007 at 11:35 pm
Right on! Who even gives a shit about Paris? I hope a car runs over her.
June 26th, 2007 at 12:37 am
Good for Barbara Walters for not stooping so low…Unfortunately, Larry King did! I refuse to watch that interview–for one thing, I cannot STAND King!
June 26th, 2007 at 11:08 am
LOL. It is true.
June 26th, 2007 at 11:15 am
Good for Barbara! I’m glad that someone realizes that this is not true “news”. I stopped my CNN news alerts emails just because of all the Paris crap.
June 26th, 2007 at 12:41 pm
she is such a liar bitch. was she not the one who interviewed paris twice and reported it on her crappy view? OLD AGE must be catching up with her.
June 26th, 2007 at 12:45 pm
Its amazing how she gets a conscience AFTER the public outcry over the skank’s potential payday.
June 26th, 2007 at 4:56 pm
johnosahon
she is such a liar bitch. was she not the one who interviewed paris twice and reported it on her crappy view? OLD AGE must be catching up with her.
AND
Ednonymous
Its amazing how she gets a conscience AFTER the public outcry over the skank’s potential payday.
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EXACTLY. When the hell did she ever have any journalistic integrity?
June 27th, 2007 at 3:01 am
Barbara is so full of s**t! It’s already been reported that she had late night phone calls with Paris’s father and had agreed to pay 100,000 dollars for the interview. She got pissed when she was outbid by NBC because she thought his (Ricks) talks were exclusive to her. When the whole scandal was brought to light about paying for news and rewarding criminal activity she came up with this load of crap to save face for people who don’t watch the news I guess. She has no integrity. She is by the way a family friend of the Hiltons.