Category: US

Millions of Americans are mourning Barbara Walters, a pioneer in broadcasting and an Emmy Award winner, who died this week at age 93.

Walters was a longtime ABC News anchor who also hosted the primetime show “20/20” and created the women’s talk show “The View” in 1997. 

When Walters’ personal account of her life, “Audition: A Memoir,” came out in 2008, book critics widely praised the “blockbuster” nonfiction work for being a “smart, funny, fascinating book” as well as “compulsively entertaining.”

BARBARA WALTERS, JOURNALIST PIONEER, DEAD AT 93

It was full of “heartfelt candor,” critics said.

It was “indispensable” and “intensely readable,” they also said.

Barbara Walters, a broadcasting pioneer, died at age 93, ABC News confirmed this week. Walters’ personal memoir, “Audition,” came out in 2008 from Knopf and vividly reveals a great deal about her life and times.
(Photo by Cindy Ord/Getty Images)

It was also “suffused with an emotional intensity,” one critic wrote.

Still another wrote that it was “intimately personal” while at the same time “wonderfully larger than life.”

Knopf published the book in May 2008 — and today, as of publication time, the book is ranking at the no. 2 spot on Amazon’s “journalist biographies” bestseller list as well as no. 4 on its “television performer biographies” bestseller list.

Walters said her sister’s condition was “never discussed” outside the family circle.

In her memoir, Walters detailed the numerous steps she took in her storied journalism career after growing up in Boston and attending Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York. 

Walters also peeled back the layers of her early family life.

She described her alternately precarious and loving relationship with her older sister, Jackie, whom she described as “mentally retarded, as the condition was called then,” Walters wrote in her book.

Walters said her sister, while older, seemed like the younger sibling. 

Her intellectual impairments, wrote Walters, were “just enough to prevent her from attending regular school, from having friends, from getting a job, from marrying — just enough to stop her from having a real life.”

KIRK CAMERON GREETED BY OVERFLOW NEW YORK LIBRARY CROWD FOR MESSAGE OF FAITH, FAMILY, COUNTRY

The TV personality also shared in her book that from a “very early age,” she realized that “at some point, Jackie would become my responsibility” — and that keen understanding was “one of the main reasons I was driven to work so hard.”

But it wasn’t just about the financial responsibility, Walters wrote, when it came to how she would be responsible for her sister throughout their lives.

“For so many years, I was embarrassed by her … ashamed by her … guilty that I had so much and she had so little,” Walters detailed in “Audition.”

She noted that when Jackie was born — over 100 years ago now — there was very little known about “mental retardation” or the “mentally impaired.”

Walters said that because her sister’s life was so isolated — so was her own life, in turn.

She also said there were few schools for those who were different and that few employers who would take on such workers.

“Today,” Walters wrote in 2008, “Jackie could probably get a job, something simple but productive … She might even have met and married a nice man.”

However, back then, her sister’s life, wrote Walters, “was essentially one of isolation” — except, she added, for the “relationship she had with me, and my mother and father.”

Barbara Walters passed away this week at age 93. She has left behind vivid tales of her life in her book, “Audition,” published in 2008. 
(AP Photo/Evan Agostini, File)

Walters said her sister’s condition was “never discussed” outside the family circle.

That was because, she added, her parents felt others wouldn’t understand — or would “shun” her or humiliate her.

Notably, Walters added that because her sister’s life was so isolated — so was her own life.

“As a child, I didn’t have birthday parties because Jackie didn’t. I didn’t join the Girl Scouts because Jackie couldn’t join. I rarely had friends over to the house because they didn’t know what to make of my sister, and I would hear the whispers, real or imagined.”

“There were times I hated her, too, for being different … for the restraints she put on my life.”

Walters said that as she grew older and started going out with friends or on dates with young men, her mother would ask her to please take Jackie along with her.

“I loved my sister. She was sweet and affectionate — and she was, after all, my sister.”

Added Walters, “There were times I hated her, too, for being different … [and] for the restraints she put on my life.”

She also said, “I didn’t like that hatred, but there’s no denying that I felt it. Perhaps you’ll be horrified at my admission,” Walters added bluntly. 

Barbara Walters is shown during the 2014 Time 100 gala. “Perhaps you’re guilty of the same emotions and will feel relief that you are not alone,” Walters wrote in her book, “Audition,” about her complicated feelings about her sister, Jackie. 
(Reuters)

“Or, perhaps you’re guilty of the same emotions and will feel relief that you are not alone,” she also wrote.

Walters noted that almost anyone else who has a chronically ill sibling, or a sibling who is mentally or physically impaired, will “understand what I mean.”

She went on to note how beautiful her sister was physically — and “you wouldn’t have known” there was anything different about her “until she opened her mouth to talk.”

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She revealed her sister’s stuttering — and that their parents tried everything possible in those days to try to help her with “her speech impediment.”

She shared, too, how difficult it was for her to watch her sister be bullied by other children.

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Walters said her sister died in 1985 of ovarian cancer — but that up until that point, Walters “agonized” over the relationship with her sibling and over Jackie’s challenging life circumstances. Still, she knew her sister always loved her, she said.

Walters’ memoir “Audition,” released originally in hardcover and a no. 1 national bestseller when it came out, was also produced in paperback as well as in Kindle and audiobook versions.

CNN
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Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Blaine Gabbert used Jet Skis to help rescue the occupants of a helicopter after it crash landed in the water on Thursday, he said in a press conference on Friday.

He and his two brothers, Tyler and Brett, were jet skiing in Hillsborough Bay, Florida when he said they heard “a faint noise.”

“We turned around… and I just remember looking to the west and seeing – it almost looked like a crew boat that had broken up in the water into about four pieces – and I vaguely remember seeing like two yellow lifejackets,” Gabbert said.

Once he reached the site, Gabbert said he realized that it was a helicopter in the water and expected the “worst case scenario.”

Tampa police said that the helicopter was making its way back to Peter O. Knight Airport when the pilot allegedly heard a loud bang and then lost power.

Approximately 300 feet from the airport’s beach, the pilot conducted an emergency landing into the water near the Davis Islands Yacht Club, police said, with all occupants ending up in the water.

“It looked like they were in distress. We raced over there, the youngest kid had just come up and he said he was pinned in there and I asked if anyone else was trapped,” Gabbert said, recalling later in the press conference that the family were all visibly shaken up and covered in oil from the crash landing.

“Then I called 911, tried to remain as calm as possible…I was just right place, right time. The credit really goes out to Tampa police department, the fire department, and the Sheriff’s department because they were there within five seconds.

“It was pretty remarkable. I got two on my Jet Ski, my brothers got one, the pilot was still in the water. That was when you guys showed up.”

Footage captured by the Tampa Police Department, who arrived on the scene shortly after Gabbert and his brothers, show the Jet Skis circling the crash site, and the helicopter pilot climbing aboard the police boat.

Gabbert and his brothers piloted their Jet Skis safely back to the beach, and he was made an honorary member of the Tampa Police Marine Patrol after his part in Thursday’s rescue.

Editor’s Note: Jay Parini, a poet and novelist, teaches at Middlebury College. Among his recent books is “The Way of Jesus: Living a Spiritual and Ethical Life.” The views expressed in this commentary are his own. Read more opinion articles on CNN.

CNN
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The news that Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI has died will have shocked no one. He was, after all, 95, and had been in declining health for at least a decade: his fragility was, in 2013, cited as the ostensible reason for his resignation, which came as a shock at the time. It had been, after all, 600 years since a pontiff had done such a thing. His successor, Pope Francis, alerted the world to Benedict’s turn for the worse Wednesday, and a kind of death watch ensued.

Some questions many may now be asking: Who was this former pontiff? How did his papacy affect the Christian – especially the Roman Catholic – world? What will be his legacy?

He was, to say the least, a man of deep learning and steadfast purpose. “Benedict XVI was a great pope,” Francis said in 2014. “Great for the power and penetration of his intellect, great for his considerable contribution to theology, great for his love for the Church and for human beings, great for his virtues and his religiosity,” he added.

Indeed, his intellect shines through in much of his writing, which includes “Jesus of Nazareth: From the Baptism in the Jordan to the Transfiguration,” a readable and engaging biography of the Christ. His deeply sympathetic study of Mary is full of worthy insights into the Marian tradition.

In all his writing, Benedict argued for keeping “feeling” and “reason” in balance. “For the Church,” he once said, “man is neither mere reason nor mere feeling, he is the unity of these two dimensions.”

This delicate balance preoccupied him in his larger theological project, which began in the mid-1960s with a meditation on the meaning of Vatican II (the effort to “update” the church for 20th century life) and continued until 2020, when he co-authored with his close friend Cardinal Robert Sarah “From the Depths of our Hearts: Priesthood, Celibacy, and the Crisis of the Catholic Church.”

“From the Depths of our Hearts” is a book that breaks no new ground but seeks to reaffirm – and vigorously defend – old verities in a time of obvious stress for the church, when survey after survey showed that Catholics were, in fact, losing faith in the authority of the church, often by the age of ten. “The priesthood is going through a dark time,” he said in this book. And he certainly nailed that one.

This “dark time” goes back many years and seemed to overwhelm him as pontiff, a role he occupied from 2005 until his resignation in 2013. As might be expected, the church struggled to come to terms with the meaning of this resignation. He was prompted, perhaps, by physical weakness. That made life difficult, as he was facing a host of problems that required more energy than he could muster. Then came a provocative investigation by the former Dominican friar Mark Dowd for the BBC in 2013, which probed the enormity and variety of the Vatican’s many problems. The revelation of deep Vatican secrets by Benedict’s once-faithful butler was one major source of agitation.

The mess was terrifying to behold. The horrific problem of child sexual abuse by clergy was at best a problem he dealt with awkwardly, never with any obvious sense of direction. There were rumors of gay cliques in the church, and widespread homosexuality in seminaries, all of which Benedict abhorred. And then there was the Vatican Bank, also rife with scandal.

Whether Pope Benedict had no idea what was happening, or no idea how to control what was happening, it’s clear he lacked the obvious political skills that were soon evident in his successor, Pope Francis. For his part, Pope Benedict made some feeble attempts to confront the multiple problems of the church. In 2010, he said that “the greatest persecution of the church does not come from the enemies outside, but is born from sin inside the church.” He pointed to “a profound need to relearn penance, to accept purification, to learn on the one hand forgiveness but also the necessity of justice.”

His life story was surely compelling. Born Joseph Ratzinger in 1927, in rural Germany, he was the youngest of three children. His father was a policeman, his mother a cook in various hotels. Young Ratzinger was apparently a shy and scholarly boy who found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time. His father hated the Nazis, but neither father nor son could avoid history. He was drafted into the Hitler Youth program – this was compulsory, not a personal choice – and he served in the Nazi army when seminarians were pulled into the ranks in 1943. In the waning days of the war, Ratzinger became an army deserter, and he was for several harrowing months a prisoner of the Allied invasion.

After his ordination to the priesthood in 1951, he rose through the ranks, largely in the role of theologian, teaching at various universities. It must have come as a relief for him to return to the life of the mind!

His deeply orthodox views played well with his fellow priests, who admired his commitment to Catholic dogma, and he eventually became dean of the College of Cardinals in 2002. His views on almost every aspect of Christian doctrine found a precise formulation in his dozens of books, which addressed topics as diverse as birth control, homosexuality and the dialogue between faiths. What he most disliked was what he called the “dictatorship of relativism.” He argued for the cultivation of a ” friendship with Christ … that opens us up to all that is good and gives us a criterion by which to distinguish the true from the false, and deceit from truth.”

Yet his views, often marked by inflexibility, earned him the nickname “God’s Rottweiler,” and sometimes he outraged the wider public, as when in 2006 – his first year in the papacy – he attacked Islam, going after Muhammad in a way that created an uproar. “Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new and there you will find things only evil and inhuman,” he infamously said. The tenor of his remarks was so egregious that The New York Times, in an editorial, urged him to make amends: “He needs to offer a deep and persuasive apology, demonstrating that words can also heal.” Benedict responded by saying he “deeply regretted” that his words “sounded offensive to the sensibility of Muslim believers,” but the apology was hardly sufficient.

Benedict represented theological positions on a range of matters from contraception to homosexuality that went well beyond what most Catholics today find palatable. But his reactionary views live on, informing attitudes on the US Supreme Court, which boasts a surprising number of Catholics who eagerly embrace a view of the world influenced by Benedict’s vision.

Yet Benedict will, I hope, be remembered as more than “God’s Rottweiler.” He was a man of honest intellect who, though rigid in so many ways, embraced the faith of his childhood with a singular passion and dug into the layers of theology with energy and persistence. He believed in what he considered the incontrovertible truth of the gospels, and his resolute stance had a noble aspect.

CNN
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A woman has filed a lawsuit against Aerosmith lead singer Steven Tyler, alleging sexual assault, coercion of an abortion and involuntary infamy in the 1970s when she was a minor and he was in his mid-20s.

Attorneys for Julia Misley, formerly known as Julia Holcomb, filed the lawsuit on Tuesday in Los Angeles County. The suit was filed under the California Child Victims Act, which allows survivors of childhood sexual abuse to file civil cases. The three-year “lookback” window ends Saturday.

In a statement, Misley said the change in the law encouraged her to take legal action.

“I want this action to expose an industry that protects celebrity offenders, to cleanse and hold accountable an industry that both exploited and allowed me to be exploited for years, along with so many other naïve and vulnerable kids and adults,” Misley said in a statement.

According to the lawsuit, Misley first met Tyler, referred to as Defendant Doe 1 in the lawsuit, in 1973 after Tyler performed a concert in Portland, Oregon. At the time, Misley was 16 and Tyler was 25.

The lawsuit alleges that Tyler, now 74, took Misley to his hotel room and “performed various acts of criminal sexual conduct” upon her that night.

The lawsuit alleges, Tyler purchased a plane ticket for Misley to join him in Seattle for the band’s next show. The lawsuit alleges Misley was also abused after that show.

According to the lawsuit, in 1974, Tyler convinced Misley’s mother to “sign over the guardianship of her daughter to him.” Tyler made promises to the mother that he would enroll her in school, help support her and help provide her with better medical care than her mother could provide, according to the lawsuit.

“Defendant Doe 1 did not meaningfully follow through on these promises and instead continued to travel with, assault and provide alcohol and drugs to plaintiff,” the lawsuit alleges.

The suit also alleges that Tyler impregnated Misley and coerced her to have an abortion.

“DEFENDANT DOE 1 (Tyler) pressured and coerced Plaintiff to have an abortion by threatening that he would send her back to her family and cease to support and love her,” according to the lawsuit. “Plaintiff relented and the abortion was performed,” the suit added.

“The complaint that has been prepared by my legal team recites in legal terms the trajectory of my life from early struggles to exploitation by Steven Tyler, the music industry, my escape from that world, my recovery and transformation, my restoration of spirit through faith, the building of a family and the rebuilding of my life,” Misley said in a statement.

The lawsuit further alleges that Tyler has “intentionally publicized the acts he perpetrated” on Misley through multiple books that were published describing the assaults.

In a 2011 memoir, “Does the Noise in My Head Bother You?” Tyler writes about being so in love he “almost took a teen bride” whom the book does not identify.

“I went and slept at her parents’ house for a couple of nights and her parents fell in love with me, signed papers over for me to have custody, so I wouldn’t get arrested if I took her out of state. I took her on tour with me,” he wrote.

Tyler’s accuser said the publications retraumatized her and her family.

“I am grateful for this new opportunity to take action and be heard,” Misley said in a statement.

CNN has reached out to representatives for Steven Tyler for comment.

CNN
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Former Pope Benedict XVI, who died Saturday in a monastery in the Vatican at the age of 95, asked for forgiveness for those he has “wronged” in the spiritual testament published following his death.

Benedict, who was the first pontiff in almost 600 years to resign his position, rather than hold office for life, passed away on Saturday, according to a statement from the Vatican.

He was elected pope in April 2005, following John Paul II’s death.

During the testament, which consisted of a letter containing the pope’s final words, Benedict spoke of the “many reasons” he had to be thankful for his life.

In the letter dated August 29, 2006, the former pope thanked God for guiding him “well” throughout life. He also expressed gratitude to his parents who he said gave him “life in a difficult time.”

He went on to thank his sister for her “selfless” help and his brother for the “clarity of judgment” he shared with him.

Benedict was known to be more conservative than his successor, Pope Francis, who has made moves to soften the Vatican’s position on abortion and homosexuality, as well as doing more to deal with the sexual abuse crisis which engulfed the church in recent years and clouded Benedict’s legacy.

In April 2019, Benedict discussed the sex abuse crisis in a public letter, claiming it was caused in part by the sexual revolution of the 1960s and the liberalization of the church’s moral teachings.

In January 2020, Benedict was forced to distance himself from a book widely seen as undercutting Francis as he considered whether to allow married men to become priests in certain cases. The book, “From the Depths of Our Hearts,” argued in favor of the centuries-old tradition of priestly celibacy within the Catholic Church. Benedict was originally listed as co-author, but later clarified he had only contributed one section of the text.

A year later, Benedict came under fire over his time as archbishop of Munich and Freising, between 1977 and 1982, following the publication of a church-commissioned report into abuse by Catholic clergy there.

In the 2006 letter, the former pope asked “sincerely” for “forgiveness” for those he “wronged in any way,” in his letter.

In the closing words, the former pontiff asked “humbly,” despite all his “sins and shortcomings,” he be welcomed by God into heaven.

In a separate letter published by the Vatican in February 2022, Benedict issued a general apology to survivors of abuse, writing: “Once again I can only express to all the victims of sexual abuse my profound shame, my deep sorrow and my heartfelt request for forgiveness,” but he admitted to no personal or specific wrongdoing.

There is no suggestion his request for forgiveness in his final letter relates to the Catholic Church’s handling of sexual abuse accusations against priests.