Groundbreaking journalist Barbara Walters dies at 93

Barbara Walters, pictured in 2014
(Image credit: NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP via Getty Images)

Longtime ABC News anchor and renowned interviewer Barbara Walters died at her home in Manhattan on Friday at the age of 93, Good Morning America reports.

A breaker of glass ceilings — Walters was both the first female co-host of the Today show and the first female anchor of a network evening news program — her Barbara Walters Specials "made Ms. Walters as famous, or nearly as famous, as the people she interviewed," The New York Times writes. She joined ABC News in 1976, later becoming the host of 20/20 and subsequently launching The View; in her five-decade career, she accumulated 12 Emmy awards.

"In all the years that Barbara has spent covering the world, those of us who have moved along in her wake have done better because she was there first setting standards, and she has taught us all something," former World News Tonight anchor Peter Jennings said during her induction to the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 1989.

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Jeva Lange

Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.