The ending of 2022 brought us the news of the death of Barbara Walters. She had retired from broadcasting in 2014 after more than a half-century of it, because she was struggling with cardiac difficulties.
At a point one might fairly describe as her career peak she was both the co-anchor of a nightly news show with Harry Reasoner (1976 - 78) and the object of a Gilda Radner parody. The parody was of the gentler sort which may be considered a tribute, after all. [The photo above shows her interviewing the Fords as a couple, during their time in the White House.]
At any rate, Walters' death comes soon after Wealth of Geeks has compiled a list of the thirty wealthiest women news anchors.
Please don't feel that you need to look it up. Here is the gist.
The wealthiest of them all is Katie Couric, now said to have a net worth of $110 million.
Then Diane Sawyer at $80 million and, third, Megan Kelly with her $45 million.
I am fascinated by how spread-out that is. Number one on this list has more than twice what number three has.
Others listed further down include Rachel Maddow, Mika Brzezinski, Christian Amanpour and Andrea Mitchell.
God speed to them all.
Every one of them will acknowledge that she owes an enormous debt to Baabaa WaaWaa.
Rest in peace, ma'am.
I remembered that Barbara Walters hated "Baba WaWa" (which is how it was spelled). But I just googled and read, “I hated [Baba Wawa] until I walked into my [seven-year-old] daughter’s room one night and she was up watching it. It was a Saturday night," Walters recalled in 2009. "I said, 'What are you doing up?' And she said, 'I'm watching Baba Wawa, Mom.' And I said, “Well! I mean, how — you know — look what she’s doing!' And she said, 'Oh, mommy, lighten up.'"
ReplyDeleteWalters came to appreciate Baba Wawa; it didn't hurt that Radner's impression had strengthened Walters as a household name. But it took her awhile to come around to it. "Years later, when Gilda died [in 1989], I sent her husband [actor Gene Wilder] a sympathy note and signed it Barbara Wawa," Walters told New York Daily News. "Gilda was so wonderful — the sketch immortalized me — but at the time I wasn't so thrilled."
On another matter, thank you for writing "cardiac difficulties" instead of the abomination that most people would have used: "cardiac issues."
She was a treasure.
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