Today was Barbara Walters’ last day on The View.
As the show aired, I thought about how much the world has changed since Barbara started her career on television 50 years ago and the lessons she has taught us.
The world my Mother grew up in never saw professional women on TV. At best, they got to be actresses and housewives. That was it. They didn’t get to deliver news, ask the hard questions, and be taken seriously when it came to journalism.
Flash forward to the Millennial generation I grew up in: Oprah was on every single day and there were countless female journalists on TV such as Katie Couric, Diane Sawyer, Connie Chung, Lisa Ling, and so on.
Now there are up and coming female journalists popping up on sites such as YouTube such as the young and brilliant Ana Kasparian.
A career in journalism was a real possibility growing up, and it was the first major I declared. I wrote a 20 page research paper on Lisa Ling and her work in journalism. I worked at a newspaper, wrote articles, and eventually became an editor.
Of course there are still many problems and glass ceilings for women to break in media, but I don’t think I would have had the same opportunities if Barbara Walters had not paved the way.
Sometimes in this society, we give far too much attention to the women who are hot messes instead of the women who show up, day in and day out, and do the work that needs to be done. Barbara Walters was one of these women.
Barbara interviewed some of the most important people of our time: every American President since Nixon, Vladimir Putin, Margaret Thatcher, the Shah of Iran, Hugo Chavez, the King of Saudi Arabia, Fidel Castro, Indira Gandhi, Katharine Hepburn, Anna Wintour, and thousands of others.
In a world where the breaking story gets sold to the highest bidder, there is a lot we can learn from what Barbara brought to the table.
The biggest thing she allowed people to do was to tell their own story. She didn’t jump all over them with her own opinion, which is the biggest problem for TV interviews today.
“If you’re in the news business you do not give your personal opinions about major issues.” — Barbara Walters
You can’t turn on a TV anymore without some psuedo-journalist rambling about their thoughts on things, usually with little to no research to back it up.
Michael Douglass was on the show and summarized Barbara up into everything I would want to say about her. He talked about how no matter who she interviewed, she treated them all with respect.
Now on the news all we see is people being hounded and attacked for news. Sold out to TMZ. Their emails and voicemails are hacked.
We no longer let people tell their own stories anymore. Sure, it’s up for debate whether some people deserve that kind of respect, but we have ruined platforms for the good people, too.
Even for all of the criticism Barbara has received throughout the years, and even having co-anchors who couldn’t stand having a female co-host, Oprah said it best on the View today, “I thank you for the courage it took every day to get up and to keep doing it.”
It takes strength to wake up at the crack of dawn every single day and keep going, even when it seems pointless. This is a lesson that applies to anyone who wants to leave behind a legacy.
So, thank you Barbara Walters for your relentless persistence and the road you have paved.
Writing The Stories 