Barbara Walters: ‘Tawdry’ Paris Hilton Interview Was ‘Beneath Me’

Barbara Walters had already written her questions for the first Paris Hilton interview after the heiress is sprung from jail on Tuesday. But “when all that pay-for-play stuff happened, I suddenly felt this was not up to my standard,” the veteran journalist told The New York Post’s Cindy Adams “it felt tawdry… the whole thing somehow was beneath me.” As for ABC, Walters said, “for them it was ratings. For me it was respect… they respected my decision and walked away.” Read more.