Tag Archives: Barbara Walters

William And Kate’s Royal Wedding: Enough Already!

Westminster Abbey in London

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Okay, so I’m definitely on Royal Wedding overload. I’ve heard enough about British fascinators (little headband hats), what Kate and Williams guests might or might not eat, where they might or might not go on a honeymoon and which bookmakers are giving odds on which of the three already designed dresses Kate might or might not wear.

I’m all in favor of fun and happy news over what our networks typically spew forth on a daily basis and any news that will give a backseat to Charlie Sheen or Donald Trump is right up my alley but…I think all the networks could be confusing many of us Americans with people who give a damn. Not that we don’t wish William and Kate the best, and not that we don’t think lovingly of his mother on this big day but we really don’t need the 24/7 coverage where Barbara Walters tells us how she has interviewed Princess Diana in the past, Robin Roberts reports on how BIG Westminster Abbey is and Diane Sawyer interviews a third cousin once-removed of Williams to give us some real insight.

Leave it to us Americans to turn this Royal Wedding into a media circus.  Many American news outlets will be reporting from London all week-long. NBC has said their coverage will be comprehensive and aggressive? What the heck does that even mean? It’s a wedding not a war.  ABC will have 20 straight hours of wedding coverage on the 29th starting at 4 a.m. ABC also mentions that Barbara Walters and Diane Sawyer will “anchor” the wedding.  Who knew a Royal Wedding needed an American anchor or two? Or actually many more as two billion viewers are expected to watch the wedding on ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, E, Bravo, MSNBC and Telemundo among many more.

And just in case you can’t take the day off from work and/or it hasn’t been declared a national holiday in your neck of the woods, the wedding will be streamed live online to IPADS, iPhone applications, Facebook, Yahoo! and Hulu. Even some of our U.S. weather channels this week have been reporting on the weather in Britain. I haven’t checked it out myself but I’m pretty sure we can count on it raining on this parade. It’s not a big deal for the Brits, they are used to it. It will give them all a chance to use those William and Kate souvenir umbrellas to keep all their hats dry.

I won’t be up at 4 a.m. to watch the Royal Wedding  on U.S. channels nor will I be watching our American news media for 20 hours-or any hours for that matter but I might take a peek at the BBC,  something tells me they will know how to cover a British wedding in short order.

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Barbara Walters 2010 fascinating people include Jersey Shore crew and General Petraeus?

Journalist Barbara Walters, at the Metropolita...

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It’s Thursday night and I’m watching the Barbara Walters top 10 most fascinating people of 2010. She just spent an hour with Oprah, because Oprah’s life more or less commands an hour just to discuss what she is going to do next in her life.  I do find Oprah fascinating, not just because of what she has accomplished but primarily what she has done for others.

Next, she has Justin Bieber on as her second most “fascinating” person interview. He seems nice, but not necessarily fascinating to me. I’m not up on 16-year-old singers but I know he is very popular with the younger set and I guess mothers of the younger set. Walters asks him the hard-hitting question about what he was doing in the back seat of a car with a girl. He said he was kissing her. I guess in Walters’ world this is fascinating.

  Next up on her list is the cast of the Jersey Shore, I forget all  of their names but it doesn’t matter because they are all pretty much interchangeable.  They are discussing in great depth (for them) their slang language skills-I’m starting to nod off.

Next on her list is Sandra Bullock. She is certainly a class act and has gone through hell this year and it is fascinating to me that she never removed her ex-husband from the face of the earth.  Now she is interviewing singer Jennifer Lopez, who said in ten years she sees her life and career as being bigger. Fascinating indeed-but to who?

Lebron James, the basketball player who left Cleveland to go to Miami amidst a firestorm of upset Cleveland fans is evidently considered fascinating by Barbara Walters and/or her producer. He plays basketball,  so do a lot of people (okay, I admit I don’t keep up on all the basketball stuff) .

Kate Middleton is next on Barbara’s list as Prince William’s soon-to-be bride. She isn’t interviewing her in person of course, but is showing clips of her that we have already seen on TV a million times. Since kate hasn’t really ever talked in public yet, it’s hard to say just how fascinating she is.

Now Barbara is  moving on to Sarah Palin who is talking about what she reads.  “C.S. Lewis for divine inspiration and local Alaskan newspapers because that is where her heart is.”  She says that thanks to Katie Couric people don’t think she reads but she does.  I’m sure if she read Lewis it was “The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe” and I would be willing to bet she couldn’t do a book report on it without Cliff Notes.  And even then…doubtful.

Betty White is on the fascination list and I must agree. He career has been long, interesting and entertaining. I find her delightful and funny.

General David Petraeus,  proposed the war surge which has seemed to work and is according to the President of the United States, Barack Obama, among others , a great leader. He, according to Walters is the most fascinating person of 2010. Finally, someone actually fascinating that is trying to  do something for the country instead of himself.  Why then is this top General even thrown into the mix or mentioned in the same breath as the likes of  Palin or the cast of Jersey Shore?  What would really be fascinating is finding out the criteria for who gets on the list. Yeah, I already know. Ratings.

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ABC’s “The View” where Whoopi and Joy better agree with your view

The morning ABC gabfest known as “The View“, where differing views are supposed to be welcome, according to Barbara Walters on an early promo for the show, probably could use a new promo.  It should read something like; “If Whoopi Goldberg or Joy Behar don’t like your view, then they will take their toys…er I mean views and walk off the stage and embarrass themselves and the show, because they are not bright enough or quick witted enough to stand their ground against opposing forces.”  Or bullies like Bill O’Reilly.

The guy is a big bag of wind and they let him command the show this week like it was his own. I mean, four women against one guy (I don’t count Elisabeth Hasselbeck) and he still came out a winner even if you totally disagreed with what he said. Just in case you haven’t seen or heard what happened this week on The View, even though it has been on every news, radio and comedy program in the last 24 hours, probably worldwide, in a nutshell: O’Reilly came on the show and mentioned that 70% of people don’t want the a mosque in the area of the 9/11 tragedy. He said Muslims attacked us and most people don’t want a mosque there as a memory. Joy Behar and Whoopi Goldberg went nuts and said he should have said “terrorist Muslims” and not just said Muslims because it was not right to defame all Muslims. He said he wasn’t defaming all Muslims and that everyone knows that it was terrorist Muslims that attacked us. In other words it was semantics.

I watched the show as it happened and Barbara Walters looked, flustered and upset. She apologized to viewers and stated that her colleagues should not have walked out. Evidently O’Reilly apologized (according to Behar) and they came back on the set but Behar would not sit next to him as she had been previously and moved her seat. They supposedly left because they said they were upset by his words. 

But, the part I don’t get besides the totally unprofessional antics of walking off their own show is; Why would these two liberals (Goldberg and Behar) not stick around and push their liberal agenda in his face?  Aren’t liberals supposed to be tolerant?  Aren’t liberals supposed to stand up and fight for what is right?  Instead they walked out making themselves look so foolish, I could hardly believe my eyes. They didn’t even try to kick him on their way out or say anything meaningful or smart or even clever (and these two are comedians). They let O’Reilly get the upper hand on their own show. Walters knew it immediately and had to be ready to kill these two.

In the heat of the arguing before Goldberg and Behar left, O’Reilly was very condescending to Behar and at one point even told her to “listen and you might learn ” instead of coming back with a caustic comment  or quip that she is known for, she childishly stuck her  fingers behind his head in a ridiculous display not suitable for ANY talk show host on National TV. This was teenage stuff. I was embarrased for her.

I’ve never been a Bill  O’Reilly fan and I do occasionally watch the view. I’m still not an O’Reilly fan and my View watching days are over. If I wanted to watch screaming and yelling I could turn on Springer, at least they are real white trash. Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar are phony liberals and classless acts at that.

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