MUSEUM OF TELEVISION & RADIO SEMINAR SERIES, THE: TWO EVENINGS WITH BARBARA WALTERS, SEMINAR NO. 2: THE ART OF INTERVIEWING NEWSMAKERS {MARK GOODSON SEMINAR SERIES} {LONG VERSION}
Summary
One in this series of seminars conducted by The Museum of Television & Radio. Held in New York, and moderated by Museum president Robert M. Batscha, this seminar is one of two that pay tribute to television journalist Barbara Walters. This second seminar focuses on Walters's distinguished career interviewing politicians and major newsmakers. Batscha opens by introducing a clip reel of some memorable moments from Walters's many interviews. The clip reel includes footage in which the journalist interviews Fidel Castro in 1979 as he cruises the Bay of Pigs on a small boat; asks Richard Nixon if he is sorry he didn't "burn the tapes"; talks to Anwar Sadat at the Middle East Summit in 1977; confronts Libyan leader Muammar al-Qaddafi in an exclusive interview; chides the Shah of Iran for his views on women in 1988; asks George Bush about the fabled "wimp factor"; gets a tour of the Pentagon's war room from General Norman Schwarzkopf; and asks Boris Yeltsin in 1992 if he drinks too much. After the clip reel, Batscha welcomes Walters to the stage and immediately opens the floor to questions from the audience. One audience member asks Walters how she was able to procure an interview with the notoriously camera-shy Qaddafi, and Walters explains that she assured him that he would appear "humanized" after the piece ran. Walters then discusses the roadblocks she has faced in her career because of her gender. She says that she believes that she has been picked on for her aggressive interviewing style because she is a woman. "If it's Mike Wallace," she explains, "it's 'authoritative,' but if it's us [women], we're 'pushy cookies.'" Walters then goes over her process for putting together an interview, using a recent interview with boxer and rapist Mike Tyson as an example. She reveals that the best way to confront a subject with a question on a possibly awkward topic (like Tyson's rape charges) is to "use someone else's words to ask the question you'd really like to ask yourself."
Details
- NETWORK: Paley
- DATE: February 20, 1992 6:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 1:28:12
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: T:23515
- GENRE: Seminars
- SUBJECT HEADING: She Made It Collection (Barbara Walters)
- SERIES RUN: N/A
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Robert M. Batscha … Host
- Barbara Walters … Guest
- George Bush
- Fidel Castro
- Richard Nixon
- Muammar al- Qaddafi
- Anwar el- Sadat
- Norman Schwarzkopf
- Shah of Iran, The (See also: Pahlavi, Muhammad Reza)
- Mike Tyson
- Mike Wallace
- Boris Yeltsin