Minnesota TV journalists pay tribute to Barbara Walters

Like many Americans, I mourned the passing of Barbara Walters last month. But I wasn't wild about her work over the past five decades. I cringed at her celebrity interviews, especially the ones that preceded the Oscars. They looked like they were lit by the same folks who design the cover of romance novels.

"20/20," which she co-anchored from 1979 to 2004, became a trashier version of "60 Minutes." "The View," the daytime show she created, was a noble idea, but it was quickly spoiled by her co-hosts' constant sniping at one another.

Walters, however, deserves credit for being an advocate for female journalists at a time when they weren't taken seriously. That alone makes her worth a special place in TV history.

"I don't think younger journalists realize the impact she had," said WCCO co-anchor Amelia Santaniello. "They think of Katie Couric and Diane Sawyer, but Barbara was the one. She put up the fight for everyone."

Walters broke ground in 1971 when she was named co-host of "Today," but her on-air partner, Frank McGee, insisted that, for serious interviews, she had to keep her mouth shut during the first three questions. When she moved to ABC to co-anchor the evening news, colleague Harry Reasoner made it clear, both on and off the air, that he didn't think she belonged beside him.

But Walters persevered, shifting smoothly to prime time where her specials let her shine, paving the way for folks like KARE news director Stacey Nogy. By the late '80s, when Nogy was attending PennWest Edinboro university in Pennsylvania, there were lots of women majoring in journalism. That wasn't the case in a pre-Walters world.

"We never thought we couldn't do it," said Nogy, who served as editor for her school paper, where the staff was mostly women. "It had already been done."

Walters wasn't above using her feminine charms, flirting and fawning to coax answers out of superstars. But you don't overcome sexism by being a softie.

Former KSTP anchor Cyndy Brucato learned that the hard way.

Around 1984, Brucato got the chance to interview Walters when she was visiting her station. Before the cameras rolled, Brucato asked the broadcasting legend if there were any specific topics she'd like to address.

Walters snapped. "I'm not going to do your homework for you," she said.

"She wanted to be interviewed the way she would do it," said Brucato, who now lives in Naples, Fla. "That was an important lesson."

Cathy Wurzer, who co-hosts "Almanac" on TPT, never got the chance to meet Walters but she admired her toughness and tenacity.

"I'm sure she could be a lovely person, but good Lord, to get to where she got in her career, she had to be one tough cookie," said Wurzer, who also hosts MPR's "Morning Edition." "She had to have sharp elbows and alligator-thick skin to put up with the sexism and slights. She'd sometimes talk about the horrible buzzsaw of criticism she ran into. That kind of thing would crush most people, but it didn't stop Barbara."

Too many journalists and viewers today have no concept of just how difficult it was when Walters got started. The fact that we take her trailblazing for granted shows just how much she accomplished.

"Because of Barbara, there are now any number of women who are solo anchors, plus an army of women reporters and producers," said Wurzer. "Without Barbara, there would be a whole lot of women you'd have never had the chance to see or hear."