ABC weaker without Walters
Barbara Walters's planned departure from her co-anchor chair on ABC's "20/20" in September represents the end of an era at the network, observers said yesterday.
"This is a loss for ABC News," said Av Westin, a former ABC News vice president who worked with Walters in the 1950s at CBS News and later in the '70s and '80s at ABC. "Barbara raised the bar on what quality interviews are all about. People tuned in to see how she was going to nail this one or that one. Without Barbara on deck, they are going to have to scramble a little bit. `20/20' won't have the same clout."
Sunday, the 73-year-old journalism icon announced that she was scaling back her work schedule to five or six ABC News primetime specials a year, occasional coverage of major news events, and her continued appearances on "The View," the ABC daytime talk show she created in 1997. The network has not announced a replacement for "20/20."
Walters, the co-host and chief correspondent of the program for 25 years, has interviewed every US president going back to Richard Nixon. And she has famously elicited tears from high-profile newsmakers such as Monica Lewinsky and General H. Norman Schwarzkopf.
Bob Zelnick, chairman of the journalism department at Boston University and a former co-worker of Walters's at ABC News, called her a "giant" in the field. "This is kind of like when Walter Cronkite retired," he said. "Barbara will never be replaced as one of the great interviewers in the history of television."
Walters, born in Boston but raised in Miami and New York, joined ABC News in 1976 as the first female anchor of a network evening news broadcast. Before that, she was co-host of NBC's "Today" for 13 years and worked on NBC's radio news programs and as a writer for CBS News. She joined "20/20" in 1979 and shared the anchor desk with Hugh Downs until he left in 1999.
Walters is not without her critics. Some blame her for helping usher in an era in which hard news takes a back seat to big celebrity interviews, or "gets." "She certainly didn't resist," said Tom Rosenstiel, director of Columbia University's think tank Project for Excellence in Journalism.
Rosenstiel said Walters is leaving the spotlight at a time when television is increasingly focused on younger demographics and the prime-time news magazine is giving way to reality TV.
Primary coverage shifts WBZ slate
WBZ-TV (Channel 4) will preempt regular CBS programming tonight beginning at 10, in order to broadcast news of the New Hampshire presidential primary until a winner is selected.
Lisa Hughes and Joe Shortsleeve will anchor the special, titled "Campaign 2004: The New Hampshire Primary," from Bedford, N.H. This program will be in addition to the station's previously announced 7:30 p.m. primary special.
CBS's "Judging Amy" will air on WBZ's sister station, WSBK-TV (Channel 38), in its regular 10 p.m. time slot.
SUZANNE C. RYAN
Globe on NECN
Here's what's happening on "Around the Globe" today on NECN:
12:30 p.m.: "Globe at Home" -- Researcher Kathleen Hennrikus and Eileen Yin-Fei Lo, author of "The Chinese Chicken Cookbook: One Hundred Easy-to-Prepare, Authentic Recipes for the American Table."
7 p.m.: N.H. Primary -- Continuous live coverage hosted by R.D. Sahl and Amanda Rosseter in Newton, Chet Curtis and Jim Braude in Manchester, N.H., and commentators including Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey, Democratic analyst George Bachrach, Globe deputy managing editor John Yemma, and national editor Ken Cooper.
Schedule is subject to change.
Talk of the dial
8:35 a.m. WBIX-AM (1060) -- "Early Exchange" with Dave Anthony & Bonnie Bleidt. Guests: Phil Schaaf, author, "Sports, Inc: 100 Years of Sports Business"; Amy Oberg, "Hiring Squad."
11 a.m. WPLM-AM (1390) -- "Hire Frequencies" with Dave Abrahms. Guest: Bob Rosner, columnist and author, "Gray Matters, the Workplace Survival Guide."
