Barbara Walters vs Walter Cronkite
These friends and contemporaries crossed paths more often than either of them wants to admit.
Barbara Walters (1929 -) and Walter Cronkite (1916 – 2009) worked on similar beats for competing American newsrooms at the same time. In Cronkite’s autobiography, Walters is mentioned often – and is said to be a friend, while depicted as a beast clawing for the kill. In Walters’ biography, Cronkite is mentioned more than once, lightly and in passing – suggesting a dense history lies between the lines.
Both Walters and Cronkite had familial ties to eastern Europe. Cronkite’s a Christian while Walters is a Jew. Neither of them is self-described as religious. Cronkite’s father was a liberal-minded dentist whose profession enabled the family to live a privileged middle-class lifestyle. Walters’ father was a flamboyant showman whose passions took the family from rags to riches to rags again.
Cronkite and Walters both had iconic careers based on merit. Cronkite’s career took flight largely on the wings of his abilities to master the games of the old boys’ club. Walters fought the old boys’ club every step she took. Regardless, each of them reported on major world events, anchored national newscasts and counted among their friends international heads of state.
Each of Cronkite and Walters covered overseas affairs extensively and each claims to have orchestrated peace in the middle east in the 1970s by coordinating joint interviews with Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israel’s Prime Minister Menachem Begin. Most of Walters’ work was based in Washington, D.C. and New York. Cronkite was often based there but also took positions with news wire services overseas to advance his career.
Walters has been a single mother throughout her professional life. Cronkite remained married to the mother to his children until parted by her death in 2005.
