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Barbara Walters: Paris Interview is "Beneath Me"
Monday June 25, 2007


Kevin Mazur/WireImage.com; Brian Ach/WireImage.com

Barbara Walters reveals that she turned down the first post-jail interview with Paris Hilton because her story is not “important” enough.

Walters, 77, tells the New York Post’s Cindy Adams that, though she had already prepared to interview Hilton, her conscience drove her to change her mind at the last minute.

"Look, I've done prison interviews before, but people like the Menendez Brothers were really important news stories," said the creator and cohost of The View. "This wasn't. And even though I'd already written my questions, when all that pay-for-play stuff happened, I suddenly felt this was not up to my standard. It...felt...sort of …tawdry.”

“The whole thing somehow was beneath me," she added.

Walters revealed that it was ABC, not she, who initially wanted the interview. “For them it was ratings. For me it was respect,” she says. “I'm fortunately at a point in my life where I can choose what I want, and this was solely my decision.”

The television news veteran also noted that ABC responded in a "classy" manner by not forcing her into the interview or threatening to give the exclusive away to another newscaster.

“They respected my decision and walked away,” she said. "Some agreed with my decision, some didn't. For me it was just a question of respect."

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