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(Mike) Wallace out of retirement for interview with Iran's president ("I thought you had retired.")
Hollywood Reporter ^ | Aug. 10, 2006 | Paul J. Gough

Posted on 08/09/2006 7:32:22 PM PDT by nickcarraway

"60 Minutes" veteran correspondent Mike Wallace may have retired last March but that didn't stop him from scoring an exclusive interview Tuesday with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

And that fact wasn't lost on the controversial Iranian president, who halfway through the interview asked Wallace: "I thought you had retired."

Wallace's interview will appear on the "CBS Evening News" on Thursday night and on Sunday's "60 Minutes."

The 88-year-old Wallace, who has interviewed almost every notable person in his nearly 40 years on "60 Minutes," said Wednesday that he wasn't going to let a little matter such as retirement stop him from doing a story about one of the biggest gets these days. After getting word two weeks ago from CBS's liason in Tehran, Sia Zand, that Ahmadinejad would be willing to talk, Wallace hopped a plane to Paris and then Tehran with producer Bob Anderson and associate producer Casey Morgan.

But when they got there they were told that the Iranian president was very busy and may not get to talk to them. The CBS crew cooled their heels, so to speak, in Tehran's 100-degree heat in a hotel without air conditioning.

"We waited, and they said, 'he's still busy, he doesn't know, he hasn't decided,'" Wallace said. "We were scheduled to return. If he hadn't talked to us by late Tuesday we were going to get on the plane. All of the sudden word came through he was going to talk."

The 3:30 p.m. interview didn't come off until 5 p.m., but Wallace said their talk stretched for an hour and a half. "We went on and on," Wallace said. "We were told we were going to get 30 minutes."

Wallace has spent a lot of time in Iran over the past four decades, interviewing the Shah, former President Hashemi Rafsanjani and, most famously, the 1979 sitdown with the Ayatollah Khomeini who asked the Iranian leader what he thought of Anwar Sadat's desciption of him as a lunatic.

There wasn't any of that this time. Wallace dismissed the common perceptions of Ahmadinejad.

"He's actually, in a strange way, he's a rather attractive man, very smart, savvy, self-assured, good looking in a strange way," Wallace said. "He's very, very short but he's comfortable in his own skin."

Despite problems with translation -- there was only one translator for a time during the interview -- Wallace said Ahmadinejad was patient.

"He couldn't have been more accomodating. He had a good time doing the interview," Wallace said. And he believes that it was Ahmadinejad's idea to do the interview. He acknowledged that he had become a much-desired interview subject but told the veteran CBS journalist that he remembered a discussion the two had over a year ago when Ahmadinejad was in New York.

"I don't know if you remember this or not but you and I had a talk over breakfast at the United Nations," Ahmadinejad told Wallace. "Do you remember that you asked me at the time if I would sit down with you ... and I said by all means, let's do it." Wallace said he was surprised that Ahmadinejad had remembered.

As for retiring, Wallace said that he isn't having a happy retirement because he likes the job. He does acknowledge, particularly in this last voyage, that the airplane travel is "interminable" and the major reason why he wanted to retire in the first place. But he said there were other stories that he wanted to do.

"When you love what you do, it's not work," Wallace said.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Extended News; Foreign Affairs; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: New York
KEYWORDS: 60minutes; ahmadinejad; iran; media; mikewallace; seebsnews; wallace
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President Ahmadinejad probably said, "I liked your work."
1 posted on 08/09/2006 7:32:24 PM PDT by nickcarraway
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To: nickcarraway

un freaking believable. need we see any more from the old-guard media to conclude that they love everything that hates America?


2 posted on 08/09/2006 7:33:21 PM PDT by the invisib1e hand (let's all toast islam.)
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To: nickcarraway
(Mike) Wallace out of retirement crypt for interview with Iran's president ("I thought you had retired.")
3 posted on 08/09/2006 7:35:16 PM PDT by George Smiley (This tagline has been Reutered. (Can you tell?))
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To: nickcarraway

"When you love what you do, it's not work," Wallace said.

And if undermining America is wrong... he don't wanna be right!


4 posted on 08/09/2006 7:35:28 PM PDT by rock_lobsta (cair = hamas = iran = EVIL)
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To: nickcarraway
"He's actually, in a strange way, he's a rather attractive man, very smart, savvy, self-assured, good looking in a strange way," Wallace said.

Not so strange, Mike. Leftists like yourself ususally find America-despising dictators attractive.

5 posted on 08/09/2006 7:36:11 PM PDT by Mr. Mojo
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To: nickcarraway
"I don't know if you remember this or not but you and I had a talk over breakfast at the United Nations," Ahmadinejad told Wallace. "Do you remember that you asked me at the time if I would sit down with you ... and I said by all means, let's do it." Wallace (gushing) said he was surprised that Ahmadinejad had remembered.
6 posted on 08/09/2006 7:37:50 PM PDT by fhayek
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To: nickcarraway

How do you talk to a person who wouldn't think twice about slicing your throat?


7 posted on 08/09/2006 7:38:48 PM PDT by mass55th (Courage is being scared to death - but saddling up anyway~~John Wayne)
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To: nickcarraway
CBS again giving a propaganda venue to a madman. see-BS did it with Sadaam too. A disgrace of a network!
8 posted on 08/09/2006 7:40:04 PM PDT by daffyduct
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To: nickcarraway
Hey Mike Wallace....

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

9 posted on 08/09/2006 7:40:32 PM PDT by WilliamWallace1999
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To: WilliamWallace1999

that is Wallace and Amenajad?


10 posted on 08/09/2006 7:43:51 PM PDT by Recovering Ex-hippie (Moderate Mooslims.....what's that?)
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To: nickcarraway

The interview didn't unearth anything newsworthy, except:

"He's actually, in a strange way, he's a rather attractive man, very smart, savvy, self-assured, good looking in a strange way," Wallace said. "He's very, very short but he's comfortable in his own skin."

So does that mean the only real 'new' news in this interview is that Wallace may be gay? (sarcasm)


11 posted on 08/09/2006 7:44:21 PM PDT by drierice
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To: Mr. Mojo
What Mike ? Mahmoud didn't have any anti-semitic remarks for the old Jew. I'm surprised that he didn't try to have you stoned to death, Mike....what a load of crap.

Why is it that seeBS always interviews these scumbags.
12 posted on 08/09/2006 7:44:41 PM PDT by Ouderkirk (Don't you think it's interesting how death and destruction seems to happen wherever Muslims gather?)
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To: nickcarraway

Because of the MSM, this jackwad has free access to the American airwaves! I wish that before the liberal media would grant on air time to a-holes like this, they would require the same freedom to let an American, other than Sean Penn and the like, address the people in whatever oppressive, totalitarian regime they are promoting. How do you think that would go over?


13 posted on 08/09/2006 7:46:12 PM PDT by ConservaTexan (February 6, 1911)
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To: the invisib1e hand; Chieftain

Talk about Iran jerking us around and making total fools out of us? thanks Wallace...what a total as*hole he is.

They would interview Anyone...I can see it now..." Well, Hitler and Eva were really very pleasant. They served coffee and cake and were quite engaging."

Please dear God, please, please...let me be in an airport and run into Wallace so I can 'accidentally" spit on him!!!


14 posted on 08/09/2006 7:48:01 PM PDT by Recovering Ex-hippie (Moderate Mooslims.....what's that?)
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To: nickcarraway

CBS, interviewing and glorifing America's enemies one at a time. :)


15 posted on 08/09/2006 7:49:59 PM PDT by BoBToMatoE
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To: nickcarraway

Just once, would I love for one of these "journalists" who interview dicators to be shot by the dictator upon arrival. Just once.


16 posted on 08/09/2006 7:56:52 PM PDT by GianniV
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To: nickcarraway

"He's actually, in a strange way, he's a rather attractive man, very smart, savvy, self-assured, good looking in a strange way," Wallace said..."

Was this BEFORE of AFTER Wallace pulled out his own ,
" I hate America " Photo Album of his past 6o Minutes "HITS" ???


17 posted on 08/09/2006 7:59:09 PM PDT by AirBorn
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To: nickcarraway
He got over 61% of the vote,he must be a "President";)

jimmy carter had no comment.

18 posted on 08/09/2006 8:00:08 PM PDT by mdittmar (May God watch over those who serve,and have served, to keep us free.)
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To: nickcarraway

"Find me one of those stooges who isn't dead and isn't publicly discredited as a lying liar."


19 posted on 08/09/2006 8:05:37 PM PDT by weegee (Remember "Remember the Maine"? Well in the current war "Remember the Baby Milk Factory")
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To: nickcarraway

Did nutjob know Mike was Jewish?


20 posted on 08/09/2006 8:06:19 PM PDT by ozzymandus
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