Barbara Walters tired of celebrity interviews

Thu Dec 6, 2007 5:40pm EST
By Christine Kearney

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Barbara Walters, famed for celebrity television interviews that often draw on-screen tears, says she's tired of Britney, Paris and the tabloid trend she helped create.

Walters, a pioneering journalist who became the first female U.S. network news anchor 30 years ago, has interviewed every U.S. president since Richard Nixon and other heads of state. More recently, she has been credited and criticized for soft interviews that elevated celebrity news above all else.

Now, before her annual show, "The 10 Most Fascinating People," airing on ABC on Thursday, the 78-year-old television journalist said she wants to focus on other topics.

"I am not going after the tabloid stuff, I don't do it," she said in an interview.

She said her latest special did not consider Britney Spears or Paris Hilton, abandoning the "week in, week out, competition for getting the next name, the next person out of rehab."

Instead, expect to see former President Bill Clinton, Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez, two founders of the Internet network "My Space," and controversial radio host Don Imus.

After years of chasing exclusives on her old ABC newsmagazine show "20/20," Walters says she is tired of trying to compete with the tide of celebrity news.

"It seems to permeate most of the tabloids and the magazines and now you have six or seven entertainment programs," she said. "You didn't used to have that.

"It's a different climate now and 20/20 and the other magazines are focused on the big celebrities. I didn't want to keep doing that, I have been doing it for years."

Walters, whose interviews with Michael Jackson and former White House intern Monica Lewinsky drew huge audiences, makes no apologies for the "personality journalism" she forged.

"We began to do more and more celebrities and we were criticized," she said. "And now ... every program does it."

It's the ratings, stupid.

"The world has changed and you watch every program now and there are even interviews with heads of state where there is more interest in their personality and their background," she said.

Rejecting this aspect of the American culture he otherwise admires, French President Nicolas Sarkozy stormed out of a CBS "60 Minutes" interview in October when asked about his marital problems.

Walters' political interviews have included Boris Yeltsin, Margaret Thatcher and Saddam Hussein.

Now semi-retired, the former "Today" host says she still has to fight for interviews, but her reputation helps.

"I have been doing it for so many years, and I keep my word," she said.

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Bernie Ward indicted on child porn charges

Thursday, December 6, 2007

Bernie Ward, a popular liberal San Francisco radio talk show host and former Catholic priest, has been indicted on federal child pornography charges, authorities said today.

Ward, 56, surrendered to federal authorities earlier today but the specifics of the allegations against him are under seal, officials said.

Ward hosts a nightly news talk program on KGO 810 AM as well as GodTalk on Sundays. He had been a priest with the Society of the Precious Blood order.

The radio station's Web site said that he was indicted on two counts of child pornography using the Internet.

Ward's attorney said today that the charges are based on incidents that occurred more than four years ago and were part of research for a book.

"As everybody knows, Bernie, for over 20 years, has been a progressive, opposed to insensitive authority - he has been a champion of charities, nonprofits for the homeless," said Doron Weinberg, who appeared in federal court today as Ward's lawyer.

"More than three years ago, Bernie was doing research for a book he was doing on hypocrisy in America," Weinberg said.

As part of the research, Ward downloaded "a few images" of child pornography, and, Weinberg said, "it came to the attention of the government in late 2004."

"They investigated and they never found any involvement in child pornography other than this period that he accessed these images," Weinberg said. "The government knows that Bernie was doing this for an investigation he was doing for a book. But the government believes he violated the letter of the law and they have gone ahead and prosecuted him."

Weinberg stressed that "the fact that these events happened three years ago and they are just being prosecuted shows the fact that nobody believes that he is a child predator."

"He is just being prosecuted for a mistake he made (more than) three years ago," the lawyer said.

Federal authorities seized Ward's computer in early 2005 and there was no evidence of child pornography or any other impropriety, Weinberg added.

"We have been trying to convince the government that his is not something they should proceed with. They said, 'He violated the law, sorry.' "

A statement from KGO's operations director said, "Ward has been a valued, long-time employee of KGO Radio. We were just recently made aware of these serious charges and are surprised and concerned by their nature.

"As the matter is currently pending in federal court, we will have no additional comment at this time."

- Jaxon Van Derbeken, Chronicle Staff Writer

Original Article

Ricki Lake: I turned to food for comfort after child sex abuse

Saturday December 1st, 2007 at 11:28 am by Lucy

Original Hairspray star turned chat show host Ricki Lake has said she blames her ongoing weight problems - at least in part - to childhood abuse.

Ricki’s then-chunky figure helped land her the role of Tracy Turnblad in the 1988 film but since then, Ricki has battled with her weight, recently losing 120lbs from a high of 260lbs.

She told Access Hollywood recently: “I was a victim of childhood sexual abuse and I think it contributed. Who knows for sure?”

“I’ve done many years in therapy and worked on all my issues. I didn’t talk about it for, like, 15 or 20 years; I didn’t admit that it had happened to me because I wanted to kind of bury things. It, in some way, made me who I am today…”

“I don’t want to be a poster child for this at all but it’s very weird thing for children when they’re violated in that way. Food became a comfort to me; it was my kind of security blanket.”

Original Article

New-and-improved Florida quarterback's Heisman campaign runs through South Carolina

By Gene Sapakoff
Wednesday, November 7, 2007

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The Alligator, an impressively thorough University of Florida student newspaper, had headlines this week including "Jenna Bush to visit Gainesville" and "On-campus dining facilities should serve cage-free eggs" to go with "Tebow sets SEC season record for most rushing touchdowns by quarterback".

Of the three, it's that last one South Carolina football fans and coaches must fret most.

The iconish and famously versatile Tebow also earned distinction as one of the Alligator's "Swamp Studs" for running for two touchdowns Saturday in No. 17 Florida's 49-22 Southeastern Conference rout of Vanderbilt to give him 14 rushing touchdowns for the season.

With the Gamecocks' defense having just allowed Darren McFadden-led Arkansas to run for 541 yards, Tebow might be able to skip into the Williams-Brice Stadium end zone Saturday night sporting the orange Crocs he wears around campus.
No longer just a fullback playing quarterback, Florida star Tim Tebow is second in the Southeastern Conference in passing, averaging 247.6 yards per game.

If the Arkansas debacle was a red flag for the Gamecocks defense, it has to be an invitation complete with wine and roses for any ball carrier able to pass a physical.

But Tebow would rather pass.

"There were a few plays where I might have taken off before, but I hung in there and made the throw," Florida's sophomore Heisman Trophy candidate said of his newfound pocket discipline on display against Vanderbilt.

Though Tebow watched Arkansas run wild, his lone personal encounter with the South Carolina

defense is the 17-16 nail-biter the Gators survived last November when defensive lineman Jarvis Moss blocked a Ryan Succop 48-yard field goal attempt as time expired.

No Moss, no ring

"Kind of a stall match back and forth," Tebow recalled.

Until Moss stretched high for his second blocked kick of the game, the turning point in Florida's run to the national championship.

"Our biggest play of the year," Tebow said. "That was just an unbelievable game. Our fans were just unbelievable. I remember we were sitting in here (the Florida football meeting room at The Swamp) after the game and Coach (Urban) Meyer showed us a video from YouTube that someone who was in the stands had filmed of that kick. You could just hear it. It was just good for all the players to hear how crazy and excited the fans were for us and just going nuts, people crying and everything."

Florida, No. 6 at the time, went on to defeat Western Carolina and Florida State, beat Arkansas in the SEC Championship Game and clobbered No. 1 Ohio State, 41-14, in the BCS Championship Game.

Chris Leak was the starting at quarterback but Tebow played a big role. His popularity is captured by Clay Travis in the SEC road trip book, "Dixieland Delight."

Among Travis' "signs that Florida has succumbed to Tim Tebow fever" are:

--"Every time Tim Tebow goes on a date, the other girls on campus carry the girl he dated to Lake Alice wrapped in uncooked chickens and feed her to the alligators."

--"Once, Tim Tebow took out his mouthpiece and threw it into the stands. It sold the next day on eBay for $14.2 billion."

But what if Moss, later picked in the first round of the NFL draft by the Denver Broncos, whiffed on his second block attempt?

No national title ring?

"Hopefully, it would have gone wide left," Tebow said. "But that was a pretty good field goal kicker so he might have made it and the season would have been a lot different. I'm just glad that Moss is 6-6 with a big vertical leap."

Stump speech

On paper, it shouldn't come down to heroics for Florida this week. Tebow alone has rushed for 598 yards and thrown for 2,228 yards with 21 touchdown passes and four interceptions.

Columbia sounds like an ideal Heisman Trophy campaign stop. Tebow even has the political stump speech down.

"I think they have a very good defense and played very well for a lot of games this year," he said of the Gamecocks. "But Arkansas was able to find a few weakness and a few holes based on how they played them. And then McFadden just made a few unbelievable, ridiculous plays.

"They'll have a tough week of practice. You know the coaches will be on them with, 'We've got to regroup' and they'll come back with a hunger. It's just a pride thing, like 'It's not going to happen to us again.' So they'll come out ready to go and fired up and play like they played against Kentucky or Georgia. They were able to manhandle those teams pretty much all game long, and those are good offenses."

No Jarvis Moss for South Carolina to deal with, either.

But the Gamecocks will have to defend against a continually evolving Tebow, who at any moment might run or pass or throw his coveted mouthpiece into the stands.

Original Article