Barbara Walters, news pioneer and "The View" creator, dies
New York (AP): Barbara Walters, the intrepid interviewer, anchor and program host who blazed the way as the first woman to become a TV news superstar during a career remarkable for its duration and variety, has died.
She was 93.
ABC broke into its broadcast to announce Walters' death on air Friday night.
"She lived her life with no regrets. She was a trailblazer not only for female journalists, but for all women," her publicist Cindi Berger also said in a statement, adding Walters died peacefully at her New York home.
"Barbara was a true legend, a pioneer not just for women in journalism but for journalism itself," Iger said.
During nearly four decades at ABC, and before that at NBC, Walters' exclusive interviews with rulers, royalty and entertainers brought her celebrity status that ranked with theirs, while placing her at the forefront of the trend that made stars of TV reporters.
Late in her career, she gave infotainment a new twist with "The View," a live ABC weekday kaffee klatsch with an all-female panel for whom any topic was on the table and who welcomed guests ranging from world leaders to teen idols. With that side venture and unexpected hit, Walters considered "The View" the "dessert" of her career.
A statement from the show said Walters created "The View" in 1997 "to champion women's voices."
"We're proud to be part of her legacy," the statement said.
Walters made headlines in 1976 as the first female network news anchor, with an unprecedented
1 million salary that drew gasps. Her drive was legendary as she competed not just with rival networks, but with colleagues at her own network for each big "get" in a world jammed with more and more interviewers, including female journalists following in her trail.
"I never expected this!" Walters said in 2004, taking stock of her success.
But she was a natural on camera, especially when plying notables with searing questions.
In a voice that never lost its trace of her native Boston accent or its substitution of Ws-for-Rs, Walters lobbed blunt and sometimes giddy questions, often sugarcoated with a hushed, reverential delivery.
In May 2014, she taped her final episode of "The View" amid much ceremony to end a five-decade career in television.
However, her career had begun with no inklings of majesty.
Walters graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1943 and eventually landed a "temporary," behind-the-scenes assignment at "Today" in 1961. Shortly afterwards, what was seen as the token woman's slot among the staff's eight writers opened. Walters got the job and began to make occasional on-air appearances with offbeat stories.
As she appeared more frequently, she was spared the title of "Today' Girl" that had been attached to her predecessors. But she had to pay her dues, sometimes sprinting between interviews to do dog food commercials.
She had the first interview with Rose Kennedy after the assassination of her son, Robert, as well as with Princess Grace of Monaco and President Richard Nixon. She travelled to India with Jacqueline Kennedy, to China with Nixon and to Iran to cover the shah's gala party. But she faced a setback in 1971 with the arrival of a new host, Frank McGee, who insisted she wait for him to ask three questions before she could open her mouth during interviews with "powerful persons."
Sensing greater freedom and opportunities awaiting her outside the NBC studio, she hit the road to produce more exclusive interviews, including with Nixon chief of staff HR Haldeman.
By 1976, she had been granted the title of "Today" co-host and was earning
700,000 a year. But when ABC signed her to a
5 million, five-year contract, she was branded the "the million-dollar baby."
Reports failed to note her job duties would be split between the network's entertainment division and ABC News, then mired in third place. Meanwhile, Harry Reasoner, her seasoned "ABC Evening News" co-anchor, was said to resent her salary and celebrity orientation.
Later, ABC News president Roone Arledge moved her out of the co-anchor slot and into special projects. Meanwhile, she found success with her quarterly primetime interview specials. She became a frequent contributor to newsmagazine "20/20," and later co-host.
By 2004, when she stepped down from "20/20," she had logged more than 700 interviews, ranging from Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher and Muammar Gaddafi, to Michael Jackson, Erik and Lyle Menendez and Elton John. Her two-hour talk with Monica Lewinsky in 1999, timed to the former White House intern's memoir about her affair with President Bill Clinton, drew more than 70 million viewers.
Her work also received high praise. She won a Peabody Award for her interview with Christopher Reeve shortly after the 1995 horseback-riding accident that left him paralysed.
Walters is survived by her daughter, Jacqueline Danforth.
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Cong is 'disciple' of Pakistan; neighbouring country eager to make 'shehzada' next PM of India: Modi
Anand (Gujarat) (PTI): Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday dubbed the Congress party a "disciple" of Pakistan, and said the neighbouring country was eager to make the 'shehzada' of the grand old party the next prime minister of India.
His comments came amid reports that Chaudhry Fawad Hussain, a former minister in Imran Khan's cabinet in Pakistan, shared a video featuring Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on his social media handle and praised him.
"Pakistan is crying because Congress is dying here. Pakistani leaders are praying for Congress. Pakistan is eager to make 'shehzada' (referring to Rahul Gandhi) the next prime minister. This is not surprising because we already know that Congress is Pakistan's 'mureed' (disciple). The partnership between Pakistan and Congress has been exposed. It shows the country's enemies want a weak government in India, not a strong one," Modi said.
Addressing a poll rally in Anand town of central Gujarat in support of BJP candidates for Anand and Kheda Lok Sabha seats, PM Modi also took a dig at Congress over opposition leader Salman Khurshid's niece Maria Alam's call for 'vote jihad'.
"Now, the INDI alliance calls for 'vote jihad'. We have so far heard about 'love jihad' and 'land Jihad'. This (vote jihad) is said by a person who belonged to an educated Muslim family, not by someone who studied in a madrasa. I hope you all know what the meaning of jihad is. This is an insult to democracy and not a single Congress leader has condemned it," he said.
He alleged that the Congress wants to change the country's Constitution to give reservation of Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe and Other Backward Classes (OBC) communities to Muslims.
The prime minister also challenged the Congress to give in writing that it will not change the Constitution to provide reservation on the basis of religion and that it will not give backdoor quota to Muslims in states where it and its allies are in power.
India is being seen as a peacemaker in the world today, he said, adding that it was his guarantee that he would work 24x7 to make India a developed country by 2047.
Modi said in the last 10 years, his government provided tap water connections to 14 crore houses, while the Congress-led dispensations gave it to just 3 crore houses in 60 years of its rule.
