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Speaking Truth to Tell-All
May 7, 2008
I was completely confused last week by Barbara Walters' "confession" about her decades-old (and cold) affair

with then-Massachusetts Senator Edward Brooke, a married man. Why was this tiny piece of information newsworthy? Because Brooke is African-American? Because he was the great love of the famed newswoman's life? If the former, it seems a bit stale; if the latter, a bit flat -- after all, she hasn't been gushing to Oprah about the one that got away or telling Cindy Adams that she's never been the same since her time with Brooke.
Rather, she's spun the inclusion of Brooke as an example of her actually
having a personal life, describing how she knew she'd have to tell him: "...he's very private," and that she "sent him a note. Handwritten." I find that "Handwritten" so poignant. I realize Walters was underscoring just how Important and Personal this was to her; to me, it just underscores how little personal life she must have had during her busiest decades in the spotlight. Why does she feel the need to let us know that she actually put pen to paper in telling Brooke about her tell-all?
I see it as a calculated move to soften her career-driven persona -- after all, she wants fans of
The View to buy

the book. Over at
Head Butler,
Jesse Kornbluth offers a different take, one that acknowledges Walters as spinmistress, but also examines the act as betrayal:
If Walters' indiscretion caused nothing more than a few unhappy days in Edward Brooke's life, I wouldn't care so much. But I see something bigger here. “There is no 'off the record,'” Hunter Thompson said, and maybe the alcoholic stoner wiseass was right... The notion, at the very top of the food chain, that respecting the privacy of others is for fools? That's recent. Walters dropping a dime on Edward Brooke legitimizes the worst sort of personal revelation: gotcha journalism of the bedroom kind.
Kornbluth concludes "I find this sad." I do, too. I haven't read
Audition, and it may be that however much of it deals with Walters and Brooke (a paragraph? a chapter?) is integral to the memoir. However, I wonder two things. First, if Walters was so concerned with Brooke's privacy and reaction, why didn't she contact him prior to her book's publication? Second, why highlight a "very private" person's reaction in promoting the book?
I think I'm still confused.
Posted by Bethanne Patrick on May 7, 2008 | Comments (6)