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She follows the line of "personality journalism" that was a specialty of Edward R. Murrow and is known for her "scoop" interviews, such as the Monica Lewinsky interview that won the highest ratings of any journalist interview. In November 1977 she achieved a joint interview with Egypt's President Anwar Sadat and Israel's Prime Minister Menachem Begin. Her interviews with world leaders include Russia's Boris Yeltsin, China's Jiang Zemin, the UK's Margaret ThatcherMargaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher LG, OM, PC, FRS (born October 13, 1925) is a British politician and the first woman Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, a position she held from 1979 to 1990. She is a member of the Conservative Party and still, Cuba's Fidel CastroFidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (born August 13, 1926) has ruled Cuba since 1959, when, as part of the 26th of July Movement, he helped overthrow the government of Fulgencio Batista and turn Cuba into the first socialist state in the Western Hemisphere. He hel, as well as Indira GandhiIndira Priyadarshini Gandhi ( ( November 19, 1917 October 31, 1984) was Prime Minister of India from January 19, 1966 to March 24, 1977, and from January 14, 1980 until her assassination in 1984. Early years She was the only child of Jawaharlal Nehru, the, Václav HavelVaclav Havel (born October 5, 1936) is a Czech writer and dramatist. He was the last President of Czechoslovakia and the first President of the Czech Republic. Havel was born in Prague. Following the Moscow-backed coup of 1948 he and his family were shunn, Moammar Qaddafi, the Shah of Iran and King Hussein of JordanHussein bin Talal ( Arabic: ) ( November 14, 1935 February 7, 1999) was the King of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan from 1952 to 1999. On July 20, 1951, King Abdullah I traveled to Jerusalem to perform his Friday prayers with his young grandson, Prince Hu. Not all her interviewees remain dry-eyed, and critics accuse Barbara Walters of pumping for the ratings-generating public tears.
Her Barbara Walters Specials are top-rated, and since 1993 her year-end Ten Most Fascinating People offers a review of the year's most prominent newsmakers.
She was the daughter of Lew Walters, who owned the famed New York nightclub "The Latin Quarter," and who was among other things a broadway producer (He produced the Ziegfeld FolliesThe Ziegfeld Follies were a series of elaborate theatrical productions on Broadway in New York City from 1907 through 1931. Promotional artwork for 1912 Ziegfeld Follies Inspired by the Folies Bergeres of Paris, and reportedly suggested to Ziegfeld by the of 1943), and his wife Dena.
1Barbara Walters' biographies often give her date of birth as September 25, 1931. That this is false can be demonstrated by making reference to the 1930 Federal Census for the Enumeration District 41-184, where her family is shown on page 198, with father Louis Walters aged 34, wife Dena Walters, aged 33, Jacqueline, daughter, aged 3 years and 11 months, and lastly Barbara, aged 6 months. This was recorded on April 21/22, 1930, so Barbara would have been born around October 1929. This is compatible with her asserted date of September 25, 1931 minus 2 years.
Barbara Walters was widely ridiculed in 1981, when during an interview with actress Katharine Hepburn, Walters posed the infamous question, "If you were a tree, what kind would you be?" to the stun of audiences everywhere. Her idiosyncratic speech inspired Gilda Radner's "Baba Wawa" impersonation on Saturday Night Live. She has been spoofed on the show by many comediennes, including Cheri Oteri and Rachel Dratch.