Talkin' TV

With practically all the juicy details that Barbara Walters reveals in her new book, "Audition," already out there, the most surprisingly thing to come from her Tuesday appearance with Oprah Winfrey was how many lies she admitted to producing on TV to protect people.

Walters said she went along with the lie that former "View" personality Star Jones wasn't fired so Jones could leave with dignity.

Walters added that the entire "View" team went along with the lie that Jones didn't lose a massive amount of weight because of gastric bypass surgery because Jones wanted people to believe she did it with "portion control and pilates."

"That's some ... pilates teacher," cracked Winfrey.

Lying started early for Walters, who many, many years earlier told reporters that her father had a heart attack after his suicide attempt.

All of Walters' admitted lies made it difficult to believe her when she said Donald Trump was the one making up stories when he said Walters was sorry that he hired Rosie O'Donnell for "The View" when Trump was in the middle of his celebrated feud with O'Donnell.

I'm not about to judge a legend who decides in her late 70s to shock the living delights out of her fans by telling them they hardly knew her.

But I'd be lying if I didn't say I am more than a little surprised by the audience's supportive reaction to Walters' revelation she had an affair with an apparently unhappily married Massachusetts senator, Edward Brooke, in the 1970s.

If all the reported stories about the questionable journalism ethics that Walters practiced are revealed in the book are true, the woman that Oprah called the "first lady of television" may have done as much or more to ruin the image of women in journalism via her book than her achievements in a storied career had advanced women in the field.

What do you think of Walters' revelations and the audience reaction to them?

-- Alan Pergament