![Jane Pauley on Barbara Walters, the GOAT](https://assets2.cbsnewsstatic.com/hub/i/r/2022/12/31/f972da6b-526d-4e61-909e-a90fde3e4d93/thumbnail/1200x630/82530e4b005b243e2686fd480a9b7654/barbara-walters-today-1280.jpg)
Jane Pauley on Barbara Walters, the GOAT
CBSN
People used to say I "sounded" like Barbara Walters, which I thought absurd, of course. Barbara had such a distinctive voice that frankly grated on some – a cultivated "Eastern" accent – and more to the point, she was the preeminent woman in network news; while I was the new girl at the "Today" show, just in from somewhere in the Midwest, uncultivated and unknown.
Me, sound like Barbara Walters?
Guilty! I'd been innocently unaware, until half-listening to pre-show chatter from the "Today" control room early one morning, I snapped awake at the sound of her voice. "Why is Barbara Walters on the show?" I wondered, a little defensively, until realizing it was a taped playback of me.
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Oregon's Durkee Fire – the largest active blaze in the U.S. – has burned more than 268,500 acres of land. And while that amount of lost land poses an aggressive and dangerous threat, there's another threat wildfires like Durkee can present that many aren't aware of: they can create their own weather systems.