Barbara Walters On Star Jones' Verbal Barbs: "Poor Woman"

Barbara Walters took to the airwaves Monday night to respond to recent comments by booted "View" co-host Star Jones. Walters said that she didn't really want to rehash the Star Jones imbroglio, but that Jones is certainly going through a tough time. She said she wished Jones well.

The former View host was quoted recently by the tabloid US Weekly as saying this of the legendary broadcaster:

It is a sad day when an icon like Barbara Walters, in the sunset of her life, is reduced to publicly branding herself as an adulterer, humiliating an innocent family with accounts of her illicit affair and speaking negatively against me all for the sake of selling a book. It speaks to her true character.

Watch Walters' response to Jones' verbal onslaught:

Comments

[TRYKER]

As several posters have written, Star did have the right words and sentiment in her statement...succinct and to the point.
Its probably too much hormone replacement therapy that had sexy Barbara stooping to out her secret married lover...and sex sells.
So much of her attention on her show seems to be centered around anything sexy...and it feels creepy when old women have sex on the top of their minds....really don't want to know about it much, thanks anyway.
The reasons for the goofy title just aren't believable...Audition ? come on.

[Meah]

Sometimes people are around so long you get sick of them. I think the View is a really pathetic show. The only decent mind on there is Whoopy Goldberg's. The others? Drivel. Unfunny. Rigid. Uninteresting. Fahgettaboudit!

[PuffAndStuff]

I think Joy is funny and I more often than not agree with her 'view' on whatever their topic at hand is.

[loha]

Star was righ on with her comment.

[HatingTheGame]

Ba Ba Wa Wa should thank Star. Her comments are keeping this stupid story and the book that goes along with it in the news.

And we're sucking up like a Hoover in heat!

America! Gotta love it.

[monty]

So a book about one's life should be scrubbed of all things any reader may find offensive??

Then that would be Fiction and totally boring to boot. Then some of you would be complaining the book wasn't accurate or true!

People are stupid.

[JoyIsGwenNYC]

I think I just made myself 15% dumber by reading this article.

[aaawyeah]

lol! ditto. i don't understand what the hell this is about? nor do i want to actually. five minutes of my life, i'll never get back.

[SSDiva]

Can't stand either one of them! However, Star Jones disgraced herself when she lied about her weight loss, then whored out her own wedding!

[ChicagoKid]

BW will finally talk about the time she got freaky with a goat in her sequel to this book.

[Wanjiru]

...Barbara Walters graceful???.....LMAO...

...listen, I'm no fan of Star Jones either, but Barbara Walters is a lying, conniving and condescending adulterer...

....sheesh!...

.

[LaFilleEnRose]

Star Jones may be the object of tabloid and late night jokes but she's the one who makes sense here. I wondered why Ms. Walters thought she needed to let all this out. I mean, are we, the American people, therapists. Do celebs have to tell us everything about themselves? TMI and a bit cruel in the doing. Thanks Star for saying what needed saying. You'll be vilified for it but the worm turns eventually.

[Cherubim]

Amazing, some people can still use the English language correctly.
This quote by Star Jones is so concise and so true:

"It is a sad day when an icon like Barbara Walters, in the sunset of her life, is reduced to publicly branding herself as an adulterer, humiliating an innocent family with accounts of her illicit affair and speaking negatively against me all for the sake of selling a book. It speaks to her true character."

[LaFilleEnRose]

You know I was looking for that word "concise" myself when I posted (above). I so agree with our assessment of it. Thanks for covering that element of Star's remarks.

[JMEB]

Big deal.

I think BW handled it gracefully.

I do believe that SJ is a miserable person, and she's just lashing out. She should get some therapy.

[klandish]

I am absolutely not! I'm totally in favor of the state of Israel. But not the illegal occupation of lands not theirs. Using your catch all phrase to end discussions or disagreements with Israel's current policy's is a conventional tactic considered viable. Walters is an Amerian neocon and zionist. Look into her back ground. I'm not Jewish but have many leftist friends who are and we agree on the overall international problems regarding Israel's occupation. Oddly never realized my username, which is a deviation of my full name could have that unintended result. My profile should end that argument.

[klandish]

Barbara is beyond therapy.

[klandish]

I despise that neocon zionist Barbara Walters. Why doesn't she tell the truth about that and put that subject for discussion on The View. She has the teflon affect of good will and seeming diplomacy that covers her true agenda which most of her audience is unaware of. Most people are aware of however the fact she is one of the richest woman on t.v.. So why write a kiss and tell book at this stage of her career? Does the exploitation and money grubbing ever end?

[JMEB]

"neocon zionist"?
You are an anti-Semite.
I think the first syllable of your username says it all.

[HatingTheGame]

"You are an anti-Semite."

Ohh, quick to the draw!

Practice much?

[klandish]

Thanks, HatingTheGame. it's difficult being called anti-semite,as president Carter was called, when you are not Jewish. But it must be especially difficult for Professor Finklelstein. An incredible humanist and profoundly intelligent man who is Jewish and whose parents suffered in concentration camps being called a self-hating Jew because of his views on Israel's illegal occupation of palestine.

[klandish]

Just for the record JMEB I read your profile and agreed with 95% of your blogs.

[MNmommy]

I don't know, maybe maybe not.

She passed notes to Reagan during the Iran/Contra arms era.

She was really nasty about Carter on The Tim Russert Show.

I don't pretend to know, but after her Russert interview, for the first time I really felt like I knew her political affiliation when before I just thought of her as center (a moderate either way) it seemed pretty clear from that interview that she is in fact Republican, and maybe not so moderate.

[HatingTheGame]

I think this is the conflict that many progressive Jews are facing. They are caught between a long long tradition of progressivism and fighting for social justice, vs backing an oppressive, expansionist, settler-colonialist nation because of cultural ties.

I don't envy the position that progressive Jews are in. Their conscience vs. the perceived (and oft repeated to ad nauseum) threat to their culture and indeed their very existence. From childhood the horror of extermination is ever present -- in their stories, in their books, in their memories-- even as they actively or tacitly support the extermination of another culture.

When you have the holocaust hanging uber alles in your life, where it trumps everything, something has to give. And many times its the truth of the matter.

[klandish]

No, she might be liberal on American social issues. But internationally she's exactly what I called her and you are beginning to realize that after watching her on the Tim Russert Show. These issues are some of the most pressing problems confronting us. After reviewing this conflict you will be on one side or the other. Name calling someone anti-semitic will not stop the truth.

[klandish]

Thanks for considering my possible defense. My reply to JMEB was misposted above their other posting where she calls Star miserable and Walters graceful. Ha!

[Flick08]

Things were different then....

We just didn't know then...

Back then I just didn't know...

Barbara has repeated these same 3 lines over and over on every interview. It's her default for all of her shortcomings. What? They didn't have morals or the Golden Rule back then?

[klandish]

What was she in her late 40's? Oh, she knew! It may have been the 70's but she grew up in the 40's and 50's. Just another soft interview from Larry King. We need an interviewer that can quietly lay into her with the techniques she employes.

[JoshuaF]

It's a tough thing to make Star Jones seem sympathetic, but kudos Babwa Wawa, you've done it!

[moonwatcher]

Barbara Walters has the spot light. It is very difficult for both Rosie O'Donell or Star Jones to get their view out without media bias. I used to watch the View but don't any more. I think Star Jones was an excuse for their poor ratings. I enjoyed hearing about her wedding. If she wants to have a gastric bypass, it is none of the public's business if she doesn't want to talk about it. Star shouldn't have said anything about her weight loss. Bringing up an old affair is very poor in my opinion. Adultery is Adultery. I find it very interesting that two people had trouble with Barbara on the View. Apparently, her husbands did too. It is no accident that Elizabeth continues to sprue her Republican propaganda. Barbara agrees with her. I've heard most commentators say how great she is. They are always defending her and knocking Star or Rosie. That's just another example of how the networks protect their own and lead the masses. I've seen a lot of racism and cruelty directed toward Star about her weight. I won't read Barbara's book nor watch her interviews or watch the View.

[JScott]

Barbara has been very clever, somewhat insulting folks but not enough that she can still be acquainted with them and has worked out strategies so that she can't ever be seen as the bad party in all these controversies. Ya notice she does the tell all book AFTER she's already got her money and fame and all the folks she talks about have either moved on or passed away. Ya gotta give her credit for cleverly being honest with out destroying other people's lives. But it must be tiring to do the same stuff over and over on these promo tours for her book, I've watched her recent appearances on other news/chat shows and she recaps the same stuff over and over, but then again I guess that's what they're supposed to do when promoting a book or something similar.

[SouthFloridaDem]

Star Jones needs to get over herself. But I'm sure that won't happen any time soon.

[MNmommy]

Interesting juxtaposition, Walters appearance/interview on Oprah against the one last night on LKL. On Oprah, Walters was very insulting and unnecessarily nasty about Rosie - but between the taping and airing of the Oprah show - Rosie appeared on The Today Show and continued to be very complimentary of Walters. Star on the other hand lashed out against Walters. Fast forward a week, Walters is laudatory about Rosie and calls Star a *poor woman*.

Walters is as transparent as Scotch Tape.

So much for being the great feminist trailblazer. Any respect I ever had for this woman is gone. I guess we, as women, still owe her some thanks, but that's it. One has to wonder how many casting couches this power-hungry narcissistic woman conquered back in the day.

[mairs]

Or as Babwa really said. "Poh Woman!"

[mabell75]

As a result of channel surfing, i have caught snippets of Barbara everywhere, she is always on script on the same four or five talking points and using the same words to describe them. She no longer sounds like a journalist, but more like all the Hollywood fluff-heads promoting their most recent projects. She stopped being a journalist a long time ago. I find her constant let me explain, arrogant. I suppose she thinks the average Joe and Jane are just plain uninformed morons. I am sure she has had an interesting life, but everything she says is spin.

[Rianna]

Barbara is entitled to write her book. She has had years of experiences, and her accomplishments would be interesting and a good read. She has shown that she is not perfect, and I do not think her entire life should be judged by an affair nearly 30 years ago.

Ms.Jones, however, has shown no class from the beginning. Her constant bragging about being a lawyer, her tacky wedding, her lies about her miracle weight loss, and her ugly exit from the show, all reflect on who she really is. Instead of lashing out at Ms. Walters, Jones-Reynolds, should get help to recover from her impending divorce, with grace and dignity.

[robbor]

this is not news

remove it from the site

[sassafra]

walters is incipidly naive if she puts anything halfway scandlous in her book and then expects not to be questioned about it. she needs to get a grip.

[Kalima]

Barbara, for a woman, who makes her living being disrespectful and often too personal
about the downfall of others, you certainly don't handle criticism very well. Try looking
for another line of work or learn how to give and take.