The Daily Telegraph reports ABC News's Barbara Walters expressing "regret" after emails surfaced showing she tried to get the daughter of Syria's United Nations ambassador an internship at CNN and admission to the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism. From the Telegraph:
Walters's interview in December – the first with an American television network – made headlines around the world as Mr Assad denied he was responsible for the crackdown which had already resulted in thousands of deaths in Syria. The emails show that, after the interview, Miss Jaafari and Walters stayed in close contact.
When Miss Jaafari returned to New York she reached out again to Walters, whom she referred to as her "adopted mother". In return, Walters called her "dear girl" and sometimes signed off "Hugs, Barbara".
Lovely. One wonders how much more of this favor-trading and fawning by interview-seeking journalists goes on that doesn't get disclosed.