FIRST OFF . . .

Barbara Walters as conduit to Iranian arms dealers? So says the Wall Street Journal, which reported Monday that ABC’s Walters may have been used by Manucher Ghorbanifar to transmit information and concepts about Iranian-U.S. arms sales to President Reagan. Walters interviewed Ghorbanifar and arms merchant Adnan Khashoggi in December, prepared a memorandum about Ghorbanifar’s statements and sent it to the White House. Her actions were described as “rather unusual” by ABC News Senior Vice President Richard Wald, who said Walters sent the memo at Ghorbanifar’s request, without prior network review or approval. Walters told the Journal she “felt terrible” acting as a go-between, but felt the information was important enough to send to Reagan (or, as one account had it, Nancy Reagan) personally. She didn’t broadcast the information because “it would have jeopardized others’ safety.”