Although Barbara Walters would later downplay her relationship with the feminist movement, her early career is marked by a number of moves that were partially responsible for breaking down the all-male facade of U.S. network news. A Today show regular for 15 years, including two years as the first official fe­ male cohost, she was originally a visible presence in the program's feature segments and then went on to cover hard  news-including  President  Richard Nixon's historic visit to the People's Republic of China in 1972, when she was part of the NBC News team. Her most controversial breakthrough involved her decision in 1976 to leave Today to coanchor the ABC Evening News with Harry Reasoner, the first time a woman was allowed the privileged position of network evening anchor, for a record-breaking seven-figure salary. Public reaction to both her salary and approach to the news-which critics claimed led to the creeping infotainment mentality that threatens traditional (male) reporting-undercut ABC News  ratings,  and she was quickly bumped from the anchor desk.

     After that public relations disaster, Walters under­took a comeback on ABC with The Barbara Walters Special. an occasional series of interviews with heads of state, newsmakers, sports figures, and Hollywood celebrities that have consistently topped the ratings and made news in themselves. In 1977 she arranged the first joint interview with Egyptian president Anwar Sadat and Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin; she has interviewed every U.S. president and first lady since the Nixon administration, as well as political figures as diverse as British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, U.S. presidential contender Ross Perot, and Russian president Boris Yeltsin. Walters had numerous comebacks and triumphs. Returning to ABC's anchor desk in 1984 as co-host (with Hugh Downs) of the newsmagazine 20/20, she became sole anchor in 1999. Her pre-Oscar and "Ten Most Fascinating People of the Year" broadcasts have become annual television events. In 1997 she returned to daytime with The View; a popular and celebrated news/issues/talk show featuring Walters and a team of "real women" commentators who discuss, kvetch, interview, and opine about current events.

     Despite her status as both a national celebrity and the recipient of numerous awards from journalists. television broadcasters, and women's groups, public reaction to Walters has remained ambivalent. perhaps as a result of changing notions of the nature of "news" in the television era. Walters's interviews have not been limited to figures embroiled in the matters covered by hard-news subjects such as politics and war; many of her more popular specials (and 20/20 segments) have been celebrity interviews and chats with more tawdry news figures. Her 1999 interview with Monica Lewinsky, the intern whose affair with President Bill Clinton led to his impeachment, was the highest-rated "news" program ever broadcast by a single network. Other memorable moments (such as the time she asked actress Katherine Hepburn what kind of tree she would like to be) have worked to undercut her image as a serious journalist. The late Gilda Radner's classic parody of Walters's distinctive style as "Baba Wawa" on Saturday Night Live remains popular as a timeless critique of the cult of personality in television journalism.

     Walters began her career in broadcast journalism as a writer for CBS News. She also served as the youngest producer with NBC's New York station, WNBC­ TV. before joining Today. After less than a year as a writer for Today, she was promoted to reporter-at-large (or, as then-host Hugh Downs described her, "the new 'Today girl' "), although gender politics at the time severely constrained her role. According to Walters, she was not allowed to write for the male correspondents or to ask questions in "male-dominated" areas such as economics or politics. and she was forbidden to interview guests on-camera until all of the men on Today had finished asking their questions. Thanks in part to Walters's contributions, these commandments no longer apply.