Recap: The Barbara Walters Interview

RUSH: Walbridge, Ohio. Yvonne, great to have you on the EIB Network. Hello.

CALLER: Hi, Rush.

RUSH: You bet.

CALLER: I saw your interview last night with Barbara Walters, and I tell you, you did prove that you were a tolerant person. When she asked the question about the recession and you choose not to be, that was brilliant. I think you put her in her place on that, and she thought she was really going to get you with this aging Hillary, and I just thought you handled yourself very well, and I wish it could have been a longer one.

RUSH: Well, I appreciate that. You know, one of the reasons that I took your call first is that a lot of people have been e-mailing about the Barbara Walters special last night and a lot of people have asked, ‘What did they leave on the floor? What did they edit out?’ You know, that kind of thing.

CALLER: Right.

RUSH: One of the reasons — by the way, Yvonne, thanks much for the call — one of the reasons, ladies and gentlemen, I am not enthusiastic about television is that it drives me nuts getting feedback every time I’m on television. When I had my own show, I would go home, I’d check the e-mail, whatever, and nobody was ever satisfied. Everybody always had a complaint. I never get complaints about this radio show. I never have people say, ‘What you shoulda said was… and why did you let ’em ask that? You shoulda thrown it right back in their face.’ I said, ‘What’s the point? What’s the point?’ Nobody is ever satisfied with television because all that matters is how you look and nothing else matters. Nobody remembers what anybody ever says on television. I give you Obama. It’s how you look; it’s how you come off.

Now, this little thing with Barbara Walters, we did this at the Ritz-Carlton hotel on a Wednesday afternoon after the program. We walked in there and we were over there about an hour-and-a-half. An hour and a half of taping — well, there was some downtime. Sat in the chair for an hour-and-a-half, and we knew this. We knew that it was going to be edited down to a two-and-a-half to three-minute segment. There was one comment that I remember getting. I was checking some of the e-mails on the airplane last night coming home, and one person said, ‘It looks like you weren’t ready when she started,’ and that was a correct comment. This is the first time that this has ever happened to me in an interview. We were sitting there and just chatting, and they were doing the lighting, and you just know, because of the way she was conducting herself that cameras weren’t rolling. I mean, a TV professional like Barbara Walters is not going to be doing the things she was doing when the cameras were rolling, plus the idle chitchat was about personal lives, and out of the blue, after sitting there for ten minutes, out of the blue came this question about my contract.

Usually what you hear is a cameraman say ‘Speed, ready to go,’ and they ask the guy, ‘Are you ready to start now?’ It was just right out of the blue, this question about the contract. Now, I, a highly trained broadcast specialist, was momentarily caught off guard by it, but I got right up to speed, realized what had happened in a flash, and, ‘No, I have no regrets.’ What they edited out of that answer was — I don’t remember what actually aired last night, but she asked me, ‘Are you worth it?’ I said, ‘Yeah.’ She said, ‘In a recession?’ And I said, ‘Yes. I just choose not to participate.’ And then — I know this didn’t air — I said, ‘All it is is a percentage of what I generate,’ and I went on to describe how it works in a very brief manner. Then the next question, which they didn’t use any of because the whole premise was wrong, was about my addiction to painkillers. They had to totally scrub all of that because the question was wrong. And I don’t want to — you know, it’s on the floor so let’s leave it on the floor, but the premise of the question was just dead wrong, and somebody sent me a note today, ‘What do you wish would have aired that didn’t?’ That, because the way I dealt with the faulty-premise of the question was the highlight. It caused them to stop tape.

It was the highlight of the interview. I knew it would never air because she doesn’t want to be wrong, and whoever researched it for her used one source to research the question. She went with it, and they eventually had to stop tape because there wasn’t one aspect of the question, premise of the question that had any accuracy to it at all, so it would have made no sense for her to air. But aside from that, folks, it was friendly. We were yucking it up and having a good time. And I thought the way they edited it last night was superb. I watched some of the other parts of the show, and I didn’t see — correct me if I’m wrong here, because I might have missed somebody — but I didn’t see very many of these other so-called fascinating people laughing big-time with Barbara Walters like I was. I mean, a couple times she just cracked me up and the question cracked me up or whatever. I thought, all told, the way it was edited it was fine, I had a good time doing it. There was nothing really confrontational about it. When I’m known, as I am, in the media for who I am, and you accept an invitation to go on a show like this, you know what you’re getting into. I know that I’m going to get into a place where I’m going to have to defend my existence. Yeah, I was challenged.

The whole thing was a challenge. ‘Okay, prove why you’re this; prove why you’re not that.’ And everybody asks, ‘How come you do these things with people who are gonna treat you this bad?’ Well, I don’t know, folks. You roll the dice and decide on a case-by-case basis. Most of the time I choose not to do it, but I’ve been on her show before, been on her show 1993, she invited me to her home in the mid-nineties to have dinner with Margaret Thatcher and asked me to do the toast. So there’s no real animosity between us. Walked out of there, I enjoyed it and had a good time. I even enjoyed the premise of some of her questions being wrong because — (laughing) — it was smackdown. Now, what are you grimacing at, Snerdley? I don’t know that she did it on purpose. Snerdley is upset how I can tolerate these people doing these faulty-premise questions. I think it’s her research people. You know, she’s doing ten of these. You might say it’s ultimately her responsibility, but she’s got people she trusts, just like I trust you guys. Well, I know you don’t get it wrong, but we know that they do. I walked in there full well expecting for this stuff to be asked and having it be wrong, because of stuff that’s been said. Snerdley is yelling, ‘She’s had it in for you for ten years.’ They’ve all got it in for me. Whenever you’re at the top, everybody’s gunning for you. It was 1993 all over again, Snerdley.

We got Obama in there. Why do you think she made me one of the top ten most fascinating? I finally saw a promo. She thinks I’m set up for a career resurgence. She thinks I went away and had nothing happen to me for the last eight years because Bush has been in the White House, now I’m ready for a career resurgence ’cause Obama’s there, plus the new contract, which she was fascinated by. I could have thrown back, ‘Well, wait a minute, Barbara. Want to talk about how much you make?’ I coulda done that, but it didn’t occur to me at the time. You know, I walk in there, be a nice guy, be who I am and so forth, and the bottom line, folks, is that it was harmless, she ended up being charmed, and I don’t think there was anybody more fascinating on that show last night than me anyway.