Barbara Walters: Paris Hilton story not “important news”
According to Page Six, Barbara Walters has revealed why she has turned down the post-jail interview with Paris Hilton, even after Hilton agreed to do it for free.
Barbara said that she decided not to do the interview because it was not important news. She added that the interview was “not up to my standard” and “tawdry.” She also added:
Besides, it was a no-win. If I did a tough piece and her tears started to flow, it would be, ‘Oh, there’s Barbara Walters making people cry again.’ Too soft, and I’d be criticized.
I wonder if that second part, that it was a no-win situation, may have played a bigger role in her decision. It is certainly not beneath her to discuss Paris Hilton and other not-real-news stories on The View, so I cannot believe that was the overarching deciding factor. I think that she was afraid that she would be seen as too mean, or conversely, like she was continuing her Paris PR campaign. I am sure that her concern for how her friend Kathy Hilton would react to the interview weighed on her mind as well. Aside from the fact that it is not real news, I think that she was smart to not to the interview, where she was already too close to the situation and perhaps could not have been objective as she would have liked to be.
The Paris Hilton out of jail interview will air on Larry King Live on Wednesday. Obviously his standards are not nearly so high.
Barbara Walters, Paris Hilton, The View, Kathy Hilton, Larry King Live, Page Six
June 26th, 2007 at 9:37 am
I agree with you.
As much as we say that it shouldn’t be news, it is. There’s a reason that she’s being chased for photos and why news agencies are willing to pay gobs of money for interviews… As a society, we are fascinated by her celebrity.
I think Barbara just didn’t want to fight hard for the interview because of the potential fall-out.
June 26th, 2007 at 10:57 am
It is not beneath her to tell Star Jones to lie about a new job. It is not beneath her to have Rosie O. ranting and making fun of Trump on her show. It is not beneath her to have Joy making sex jokes at inappropriate time. It is not beneath her to make the Paris Hilton case personal by reading her mother’s letters on air, and showing her audience how close she is w/the Hiltons.And it is not beneath her to have a live fight with split screen and all.
June 26th, 2007 at 11:14 am
I think she maybe realized she was too close to them to be objective. Also if she or the network paid, wouldn’t she have to be a little more hard-hitting, to make sure they got their money’s worth? I wonder if that would have made it harder to interview Paris, considering they all seem to be rather friendly to begin with.
Maybe she realized she was in - as Winnie stated - a no-win situation and ultimately decided against it.
June 26th, 2007 at 11:18 am
Oh I just remembered when she did the interview with Rudy Guilliani’s wife. In that interview, my impression was Barb seemed to throw tiny softball questions and seemed to be tip toeing around her. Maybe Barb did not want to do something like that again with Paris?
June 26th, 2007 at 12:31 pm
I THINK I remember Babs telling viewers that she either knew Judith fairly well or was kind of friends with her. She did seem to indicate she thought Judith was fabulous & seemed to come to her defense. So I get the idea she tries to cue in the viewers (The View viewers, that is) with what her back story is with various people she interviews. But when she kept saying that she was not friends with the Hiltons and was not Paris’s official apologist, no one seemed to buy it. So I’m guessing she thought it wasn’t worth the potential fall-out.