Barbara Walters has passed away at 93.
Considered the first female co-anchor of television.
She made the road the others followed.
Or so they say.
She pioneered being a woman in the news business.
She was the first to be seen on night time news.
She was the first in many things.
She was one of the icons of the news.
She also did interviews of important persons.
She was said to be the Queen of the nighttime news.
She did everything a man could do but in high heels.
And she never missed a comment or a question.
The news is an old business.
Many have attempted the cross over.
From print reporting to live broadcast.
One of the other pioneers
Was known as Charles Jennings.
The voice of Canada.
His son was more famous.
Peter Jennings was better known.
As the journalist through the seventies.
Before he became an anchor in the eighties.
They were the front runners along with others
Of bringing the news to people via the television.
There were few of them to mention
But many who will be remembered.
Throughout time and history.
The Troubadours and Minstrels
Used to travel through the villages.
To inform the people of the news of the community.
For runners of the business.
Singing the news outside the town hall.
Printing it for the populace.
Even if it incited an incident.
Such as the Boston tea party.
Til the online news blogger.
Who still gets up in the middle of the night.
To write the experience of the outside world.
Comparead to those who followed the news.
Made their way through a military encampment
To find the boss to interview.
To bring home what the men fell overseas.
To standing in front of an exploding volcano.
Or a riot that is ongoing over freedom of the people.
The freedom of the press is an American expression.
It has been recited throughout the world.
The idea of not a historian reporting the Greek wars.
In retrospect but on the spot watching,
The Berlin wall come down
Or the Tina men square rebellion.
Or even watching a royal wedding.
Or funeral with all the pomp.
There are so many different news shows
Nowadays that is often confused with real news.
In the old days,
Before there was a Barbara
Sitting down and interviewing the President
Of any country.
There was radio.
Live broadcast from a standing platform.
A person would stand in front of this tall metal device
And speak into the microphone
And read the news.
Later there were radio stations
Which reached throughout the nation
And then the world after cable was dropped
On to the floor of the ocean.
That is how they get telegrams.
Radio was the stable of America
At the first world war
Or great war in Europe
Who also had this newer invention.
Television was just being used experimentally
When World War two began
Except for few places
Where they could show President Roosevelt
Siting by the fire side in his chats.
It was over the wire that people
Heard and was introduced to the news.
Females were used in all these aspects
From the singing minstrels
To the typist for the news
To helping create the early print news.
There were always women on board.
It was only after the war
That everyone began to explain that women
Never worked nor did anyhing outside.
They were wrong
And Barbara proved it was possible
To be a respectable news reporter.
However, there are so many young women
That one wonders if they are teaching home education
In schools, a mandatory course.
One does need to know how to sew a button
But it seemed a waste to sit there in a class
When one could be doing other things.
The old farm news first published
By Benjamin Franklin
Became the local community standby
Getting the farm news about weather
And crops as well as government issues
Was more important than the empty nightly news
Of celebrities and politicians.
My grandmother was one of those who worked
At a job that no one gave her respect.
Starting as a young teenager
Getting up at the rise of the dawn
She would be there broadcasting the weather of the day
Later after she was married
She was living in London during the blitzes
Waiting for her husband to come home
Just as all the other women were waiting
For their boys to return from war.
She managed to get introduced to importanat people
And introduced a few on her radio show
Such as the Lindbergs and the Windsor's.
She even went into the field with her trusty companion
And found Eisenhower at his war charts.
He gave her nice advice
And then shipped her back to the states.
No woman should be wandering around
The fields interviewing his men!
She ended up at Burbank studios.
Where she finally got her dream
The return of her husband
And in one piece.
She was even given a few mentions
And a place of honor.
When Truman became President
She was allowed to interview him on television.
And then her career was over as she had reached
The climax of it and there was nothing else for her to do.
Women often had their careers cut short.
They also got shortchanged in the cycle.
And sometimes they caused a whirlwind
That even they could not survive.
Long live the Queen of the evening news.
She made a road for others to follow
Out of the breadcrumbs
Of the ladies of the radio.
Who quietly lit the way ....
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