European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - June 10, 1977, Darmstadt, Hesse Magazine Barbar Walters a serious woman h by Judy Flande Washington Star Arry and i were sitting on the set wednes Day night watching a piece of tape that had come in from one of the stations and there was a very pretty Chesty weather girl and i said of Harry there s your next partner and then the Man on the program came on with his Toupee and Harry said there s yours and i said i can always Wear a sweater and he said i can always get a Toupee this is the sort of thing nobody would Ever expect of us. Maybe we should put it on the Barbara Walters is smiling and reasonably relaxed As she tells this Story. Usually she could t Nave been that lighthearted about a situation that has haunted her since she came to Abc As co Anchor with Harry Rea Soner a Man who clearly has not been tickled to death about sharing the limelight with her. She is wearing a Bright red dress that matches her mood one of buoyant renewed Confidence and Energy one of Hope where there had been despair. Two Days before it had been announced that Roose Arledge president of Abc sports would also be president of Abc news and this was Good news for her Long awaited. She is looking ahead to Roone s firmer hand and fresh direction to Rescue the evening news show from the holding pattern it s been in for the past few months and to revitalize the Abc news department. A week before in one of two interviews with the Washington Star the Only interviews she has Given in the six months since the press Laid siege to her. Shortly after she began As co Anchor she was tense obviously Misera ble burned by what current Abc news head William Shee Han Calls a great firestorm of publicity Walters has let the interview requests stack up there Are now Many hundreds of them in a bulging file in abcs Public relations Day for the last seven months she has had to face this terrible barrage of she says if she were to Wake up one morning and go through the Day without Reading her name it would be a Good through it All she has never had the flu not even a cold marvels her Secretary Judi Beck she has t missed a Day s work has had Only a one week vacation with her daughter. Jacqueline 8.tdidn t go off to doctors Hospital for two weeks with the Vapours. I did t fall apart from an attack of exhaustion Walters says with some Pride. Even in her misery she looks fresh and she never loses for a moment her professionalism. Suddenly in a time of television gossip ". New Yonne television critics Are battling with each other to see who can have the most sensational Story. I will do the smallest thing and literally it will be on the front Page of the new York times. When there s a vague possibility i May be going to Washington it comes out As a front Page Story in a Chica new woman Walters i Don t mind the criticism. Go newspaper that i m going to Washington As a she denies categorically that she s moving there Ever. It simply in t one place Walters is sure the publicity in t coming from is Abc. We did not inaugurate that enormous in Tensity of publicity which i think sadly Abc helped. Whenever they had a press conference for their own shows they gave ours too she says referring to report by other networks. Her office is Small cozy and feminine but not frilly. There s a soft easy chair a Couch and two Chrome Side chairs upholstered in Pink a brawn table and desk chair an Ordinary office typewriter. There Are pictures of Jacqueline and one of her letters casually framed. There is a Large drawing of an empty Abc today set. With just one sad looking crewman looking on and the words we wish you All the it is covered with signatures. I Don t mind the criticism but i Don t think i be really had a Chance Walters says something was wrong with the show it was All her fault she s that million Dollar baby and by did t she produce that Miracle i think from the Day i came Here i was under a tension and a Glare the ratings did t sky rocket overnight and i was a failure i never had a Chance. Now with Roone coming i feel we have a Walters met Arledge a couple of months after the came to Abc and immediately recognized in him a Man with intelligence integrity and what worries her about him is that his problems Are the same As Hen she identifies with him. Roone is being described in exactly the same Way i was As show Biz. I m afraid hell Bend Over backward too far the other Way just As i did. People Are expecting miracles from him just As they did from me. I m not sure that it won t take the entire length of my contract five years Tobe no. 1."As for the reported hostility Between herself and Harry re Wisoner she is discreetly silent. She talks about Reasoner s ability his dry sense of humor she does not think Abc news will stand or fall on How the two of them Are perceived by the Public. She has Praise too for Sheehan whom she describes As an extremely Fine Man. I m terribly fond of she says that maybe because it s been such a Tough year. I feel very Good about myself. I feel Good about How i work with these people the production people and the Way they feel about me. That s kept me going. And recently she s been getting hundreds of letters from people reacting to her bad publicity telling her How much they like her and in three words to hang in s a lady. She got a bum one of those production people was empathizing with the plight in which Barbara Walters found herself since deciding to leave the warmth and Comfort of Abc s morning today show for the Chilly Heights of a co Anchor spot with Harry Rea Soner on Abc s evening news. None of the staff bad met wallers before she arrived and she did t know anyone at Abc with the exception of one woman executive. The Abc staff people were expecting a demanding personality. Instead Barbara comes in with her Indef Aliga ability. With her integrity and her understanding of what is news and she puts us All to shame. I like her. Hell i m not paid to like her. Walters did t make the move to Abc in a Shower of love and kisses. Satirists and the press rained epithets and derision on her. A woman network Anchor making a million dollars a year her speech was mocked Gilda Radner of Abc s sat urday night socked her with a Baba Wawa routine As ruthless As it was insistent. That hurts Walters says wincing. There was so much questioning of whether 1 even had the right to appear on an evening news program As if it was some holy territory Walters said in the earlier interview. How dare i was i even allowed How did i have the nerve to want to do this years of writing and reporting and interviewing were suddenly dismissed. Everybody said it s going to be show business she s going to sing and dance i m a serious woman she said her voice taut her face tight with anguish. She could never have anticipated what was still to come. Rage from the press and a daily Stream of gossip a viciousness and glee beyond any kind of explanation she said a pain she would never have knowingly wished for herself. Reasoner is an Anchorman who As one source puts it made no Bones about not being Nappy to see her he would t have been Happy to see worse she is taking All the blame from television critics because Abc is still no. 3 in the ratings. After three weeks of my being on the air everyone took my pulse. Time Newsweek most of the newspapers. We were up a Point in the ratings and the share and everyone said she s a Flop she did t conquer and internally she says there s been a Lack of sup port leadership and commitment to the news she had been promised. We were beginning to wonder about our a new program expanded to 45 minutes was in Early november according to Sheehan who will now work under Arledge we had such Strong opposition from our affiliates we had to abandon the idea of 45 min the Adverse publicity has put a Strain on the two anchors. Before the onslaught of the criticism said one of the Abc program s writers we were a very Happy unit Harry and Barbara got along afterwards the writer said there was a polarization within Abc. People assignment editors and reporters were divided into two Camps his Camp and her the Reasoner Camp has prevailed. The stars and stripes Page 13
