[Note 10/5/2016:] The replacement of Barbara Walters with Pamela Courson, done after Walters’ retirement and during the 1990s, might qualify as a “Mandela Effect” type event, but not a psychiatric hallucination. People who think they know Walters know the replacement, who has completely replaced the original in their minds. Pictures of the original woman, 87 if still alive, are contained within this post. Pamela Courson is currently 69 years old.]
This has been fraught with difficulty. Take a look at the photo below. It is said to be Barbara Walters with Muammar Gaddafi.

Indeed, that is the person we have come to know as Walters, but it is not the person who sat in that chair in 1989 with Gaddafi. The photo is from an ABC website highlighting her career. I cannot say with absolute certainty, but I think the head of the replacement Walters has been placed on the old body. While everything else in the photo is sharply defined, including her neck and sternum, her face is smooth, as if filtered. In 1989, she was 60 years old. Perhaps they merely airbrushed the photo to make her look younger, but I am more suspicious that the ABC tribute site to Walters was worked over so that the photos would agree with the present-day replacement, shown in the inset, Pamela Courson [who fake-died in 1974.]
Here are two photos that I know to be the original Walters. Further, as you can see below, I am quite certain that Pamela became Walters.

Pamela Courson, in case you don’t know, was Jim Morrison’s beard. She was hired to appear with him in public as his girlfriend. Later, when he was removed from view and sent to Paris, she also appeared in public with Morrison’s body double, the man seen to the right here. That is part of the job of a beard – to ease transitions. (Jane Asher was used in this manner, appearing in public with both McCartney twins.)
So here is the new Barbara Walters alongside the old:

It is a close resemblance. I can see why they chose Courson. But it is not the same person.
When did the switch happen? I thought that part would be very difficult, but it was not. The switch happened shortly before 1997. The screen grab below is from Walters’ Wiki page. You can see that along about 1997 she started getting awards like crazy.

The original Barbara Walters was nominated for two awards throughout her entire career. Pamela Courson-Walters was nominated 23 times since 1997. That is how it works – spooks like to promote spooks. Journalism awards, like journalism itself in this country, are fake.
The real Barbara Walters is 83 if still alive. Her replacement, Pamela, is now 69, and retired, a fake life well lived. It has been 42 years since her fake death.
One final note: The photo to the left caught my eye. It is said to be of Walters when she worked for NBC during the period 1961 to 1974. But it is Pamela. The microphone is a prop. This photo got me thinking that Courson might have transitioned right into Walters as early as 1976. Generally fake deaths are followed by a period of absence of maybe a decade or so. (Heath Ledger should be re-emerging in the next couple of years.) However, the Barbara Walters who worked for ABC in the 70s was the original. It is safe to say the switch was in the mid-90s, prior to all of her fake awards.