Barbara Walters has been on the receiving end of criticism for what used to be THE fashion faux pas – repeating an outfit. But really, in this day and age, shouldn’t she be lauded for her actions? Barbara defends herself on Sirius XM Radio to her producer and friend, Bill Geddie. Here’s the conversation …

BARBARA WALTERS: I got criticized.

PRODUCER BILL GEDDIE: Why’s that?

BW: About my clothes.

[Laughing]

BG: TMZ says, "Barbara Walters is a repeat offender." Barbara and I went to the Time 100 thing the other night … and you wore this dress.

BW: It’s a black dress. A short, black [dress], pretty and very old … now we call it vintage, that’s a good way of saying it’s old.

BG: I’ve seen you in it before, dozens of times …

[Laughing]

BW: Not dozens of times.

BG: OK, six, eight times.

[Laughing]

BG: Now you wear it again, not four days later …

BW: So what?

BG: To the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.

BW: Why shouldn’t I be praised instead of condemned?

BG: What for, recycling? What is this, a green movement or something? What do you get praised for?

BW: Because I don’t happen to have a brand-new dress for every occasion.

BG: Oh, come on.

BW: Oh, please.

BG: Come on, you must have a dress for every occasion.

BW: I don’t have that many short dresses. As a matter of fact, tonight [Monday] there’s something called Literacy [Partners], which is a big charity event …

BG: For God’s sake, don’t wear this dress.

BW: I was going to wear the dress again tonight.

BG: Ah, how sad.

BW: Well now I’m not going to.

BG: That is so pathetic.

BW: I don’t think so. I think the fact that I wear my clothes more than once, I think people should say, “Isn’t that terrific. This is not a woman who goes out for every occasion …” By the way, it’s my dress; I’m not borrowing it from somebody and giving it back.

BG: This is one of the things that people don’t realize, when you see a journalist, and it doesn’t matter how much money you make, when you see an actual journalist who [is] working for an actual news organization, à la Barbara Walters, she can’t take a bunch of free dresses … from people, folks. Everybody else can. When you see Katie Holmes out there she’s in somebody else’s dress, she takes it back the next day and they send it back to the store.

BW: When you see the women on "The View."

BG: Because they’re not involved in a news organization, they can borrow things. You see people, when they have an event that night, and they go into wardrobe and say, “What do we got here? I’ll take that, I’ll take that.” Barbara wears, for the most part, I would assume, she wears her own stuff. Every now and then you’re able to wear … but you can’t take a gift …

BW: No.

BG: Oscar de la Renta can’t go, “Here, here take this dress., Barbara.”

BW: No.

BG: You can’t do that. So she actually shells out good money for these dresses, and that’s why she wears them constantly.

BW: I beg your pardon. Wouldn’t you like it if your wife wore the same dress?

BG: She does. All normal people do.

BW: Instead of your saying, “Isn’t it great that I wore the same dress,” it says here, May 5 and May 9, and I was going to do it tonight, but now I won’t.

BG: Spend a little money, that’s all I’m saying. How far is Saks from your home?

BW: You’re not serious? I cannot believe you are serious.