Free Republic

Ayn Rand, the author of Atlas Shrugged is interviewed by Mike Wallace in 1959. She talks morality and government. If I had to peg her, I would say she'd be a backer of Ron Paul. Definitely not a Palin supporter. I did just get her book and am into the second chapter. It's a good read so far.Libertas

I'm looking for the news item about the TV anchor who said something along the line of "if I knew of an imminent attack on US forces, I wouldn't tell them because journalists are supposed to be neutral." Might just convince a liberal with this one.

On Sunday September 15th Governor Faubus put out the word that he had made proposals to President Eisenhower and that the National Guard would remain at the school for now. The crowds of pro-segregationists began to dwindle the week of Monday September 16th. The whole controversy brought national news media to the scene including the developing network television news operations. NBC sent John Chancellor from Chicago to report live from in front of the school. Meanwhile CBS had Howard K. Smith, who has just come back from London to head up its Washington bureau. Live transmissions were by long-distance phone...

UPDATE: Jack Kevorkian left prison after eight years. He was greeted by CBS reporter Mike Wallace -- who gave him a hug. COLDWATER, Mich. (AP) - Jack Kevorkian, the retired pathologist dubbed "Dr. Death" after claiming he had participated in at least 130 assisted suicides, left prison after eight years Friday still believing people have the right to die. A smiling Kevorkian said the release was "one of the high points of life" as he paused near a white van that was waiting for him. He was accompanied by "60 Minutes" correspondent Mike Wallace and wore a blue sweater, striped...

In what may be his strongest public statements against the Bush administration, presidential candidate Mitt Romney says his fellow Republicans in the Bush White House made mistakes in Iraq that the country is still paying for. Romney also deplores the polygamy his ancestors practiced in the 19th Century in a 60 MINUTES interview with Mike Wallace to be broadcast Sunday, May 13 (7:00-8:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network. "I think the administration made a number of errors," he tells Wallace. "I don't think we were adequately prepared for what occurred. I don't think we did enough planning. I...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- In a concession to the Senate's new Democratic majority, four of President Bush's appeals court appointees have asked to have their nominations withdrawn, Republican officials said Tuesday. These officials said that William Haynes, William Myers and Terrence Boyle had all decided to abandon their quest for confirmation. Another nominee, Mike Wallace, let it be known last month that he, too, had asked Bush to withdraw his nomination.

At least 30 people died every day in Saddam Hussein's prisons, a Kurdish witness said on Tuesday as the trial resumed of the ousted Iraqi president and six others on genocide charges. Mutalib Mohammed Salman, a 78-year-old man told the court Tuesday how he and his fellow villagers were rounded up during the 1988 'Anfal' campaign and shipped off to a desert prison in southern Iraq. "One day I counted 20 dead bodies as I went over to see two of my relatives in the prison after I heard that they were sick," he told the court, according to AFP....

In a recent commentary, former New York Mayor Ed Koch - a Democrat with at least half a brain (which makes him the leading intellectual light of his party) - asked rhetorically, "Why do so many Americans refuse to face the fact that our country is at war with international terrorism?" Because they're liberals? During the Spanish Civil War, as the climactic battle for Madrid approached, Nationalist leader Francisco Franco told a reporter: "I have four columns marching on Madrid and a fifth within the city ready to rise at my call." Franco's comment gave rise to the World War...

They giggled, they flirted, they batted their eyes, but what 60 Minutes didn't translate during the Wallace/Iwannajihad interview is truly shocking. Click on the picture to view video

IMHO (in my humble opinion) UNSPUN © by Norman Liebmann In my humble opinion, even if they convict the murderer of JonBenet Ramsay, it will not absolve her parents of the sin of having turned that little girl into pedophile-bait. In my humble opinion, the next sound you hear will be George W. Bush’s conservative base breaking camp. In my humble opinion, Mike Wallace’s 60 Minutes interview of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is the Equal Time Principle gone mad. In my humble opinion, if Jimmy Carter wasn’t white trash he’d be trash of some other color. In my humble opinion, evidence will...

In an effort to change the course of history, the U.S. government sent Mike Wallace back in time to interview Adolf Hitler before the 1938 Munich Conference. The theory was that if the legendary, hard-hitting, pit bull journalist Wallace were to expose the true Hitler in a newsreel to be shown in movie theaters throughout the world, it could tilt the balance of world opinion against appeasement, and save millions of lives. The following are excerpts from the newsreel. WALLACE: When German Chancellor Adolf Hitler speaks out candidly -- as is his habit -- he scares a lot of people....

Click on the link and watch.

When Mike met Mahmoud Boston Globe August 16, 2006 By Jeff Jacoby, Globe Columnist NEVILLE CHAMBERLAIN flew to Munich to see Adolf Hitler, Walter Winchell observed in 1938, ``because you can't lick a man's boots over the phone." Why did Mike Wallace fly to Tehran? Wallace's bio at the CBS website lauds his ``no-holds-barred interviewing technique," but there was no hint of it Sunday, when ``60 Minutes" aired his interview with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad .....

The Grand Inquisitor Confronts...Mr. Rogers? August 15, 2006 The Wall Street Journal Bernard Goldberg An old line that used to make the rounds at CBS News held that the last thing the CEO of a major corporation wanted to hear was "Mike Wallace on line one." Anyone who has ever seen my former colleague in action gets the joke immediately. But I'm guessing that Ayatollah Khomeini didn't watch "60 Minutes" very often back when he was leading the Iranian Revolution and holding Americans hostage. I'm also guessing he didn't know Mike Wallace from Kate Smith. Big mistake. The ayatollah was...

A little over three years ago, CBS sent Dan Rather to Baghdad to ask meaningless questions to, and provide a propaganda vehicle for, Saddam Hussein. Last night, Communication for Barbarians Service broadcast Mike Wallace's equally meaningless interview with the Islamic Republic of Iran's fanatical leader. Interviews with evil leaders are meaningless at best and destructive at worst. Few reporters will ask real questions or challenge the propaganda responses of these leaders. These interviews merely offer them invaluable "humanizing" time and ask questions that reconfirm the low state of television news. Mike Wallace And The Barbarian In Teheran In this image...

Mike digs MahmoudLike son, like father. A few months ago, Fox News anchor Chris Wallace took some serious ribbing after he described Gov. Romney on an WRKO radio talk show as “an enormously attractive guy.” Now we know where Chris got into the habit of describing men as “attractive.” Wallace’s dad, “60 Minutes” guy Mike Wallace, nearly went weak in the knees discussing Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. “He’s a rather attractive man, very smart, savvy, self-assured, good looking in a strange way,” Mike Wallace said, according to the Hollywood Reporter. “He’s very, very short but he’s comfortable in his own...

"It is a shame that the venerable Mike Wallace was so determined to secure this interview that he failed to recognize that he and CBS would inevitably be used skillfully by the Iranian leader," said AJC Executive Director David Harris. "Known as a tough interviewer, Wallace this time around proved inexplicably passive, perhaps hypnotized by his own unexpected fascination with the Iranian leader. As a result, he failed, among other things, to press President Ahmedinejad on his long trail of damning quotes on Jews and Israel, as well as to challenge the Iranian leader on his support of Hezbollah and...

WASHINGTON - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad blames the U.S. for growing violence in the Mideast, saying fighting has continued in Lebanon because the United Nations only serves U.S. interests. In an interview airing Sunday on "60 Minutes," Ahmadinejad said it was Hezbollah that had a right to defend itself in its war with Israel. Even so, he said Iran joined others in calling for an immediate cease-fire only to have it thwarted by U.S. support for Israel. "We are not at all happy with war," he said. "People, innocent people are being killed." Saying the U.N. has failed to provide...

What is it about tyrants that gives media types goose flesh? The question came to mind while pondering "60 Minutes" thug Mike Wallace's transformation into Barbara Walters in an interview with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Wallace's reputation is as an ambush interviewer – the tough guy who's not afraid to ask any question of anyone. He's the eternal cynic who won't buy anyone's lies. He's the emotionless inquisitor. He's the media's version of Torquemada. What a matchup! Wallace vs. Ahmadinejad. How many rounds would a bout like this last? Would Wallace ever make it out of Tehran alive? How long...

In the interview, Ahmadinejad said of the Bush administration, "see how they talk down to my nation." During the midst of the American hostage crisis in 1979, Wallace interviewed Iranian leader Khomeini, locking eyes with the cleric when he asked for a response to Egyptian President Anwar el-Sadat calling Khomeini a lunatic. Of Ahmadinejad, Wallace said, "He's an impressive fellow, this guy. He really is. He's obviously smart as hell." Wallace said he was surprised to find that the Iranian president was still a college professor who taught a graduate-level course. "You'll find him an interesting man," he said. "I...

88-year-old CBS journalist Mike Wallace says Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a 'reasonable' man on Sean Hannity's ABC radio program... Points out Ahmadinejad not anti-Jewish... just anti-Zionist state. Says many Jews in Iranian Parliament, in great positions in Iranian life... Believes Ahmadinejad sincere in his hope for peaceful coexistence between Iran and West...

(CBS) Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sat down with Mike Wallace in Tehran on Tuesday in a rare, exclusive interview with a Western reporter. In the wide-ranging interview, the Iranian leader comments on President Bush's foreign policy, the lack of relations between Iran and the United States, Hezbollah, Lebanon and Iraq. Speaking about President Bush's failure to answer his 18-page letter that criticized U.S. foreign policy, Ahmadinejad said, "Well, (with the letter) I wanted to open a window towards the light for the president so that he can see that one can look on the world through a different perspective. …...

"In a rare interview with a Western reporter, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (R) talks to Mike Wallace at the Presidential Palace in Tehran August 8, 2006, for a '60 MINUTES' report."

"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...

Veteran CBS journalist Mike Wallace described current Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as an "impressive fellow" following their meeting Tuesday in Tehran. "You'll find him an interesting man," the 88-year-old Wallace said. "I expected more of a firebrand. I don't think he has the slightest doubt about how he feels ... about the American administration and the Zionist state. He comes across as more rational than I had expected."

For years 60 Minutes has been second only to Nightline (pre Terry Moran, who's a significant improvement) in deceptive, one sided current events programming. Their presentation of events is usually appalling to anyone who researches both sides of any issue they cover, but this seems to be a new low even for them. Surprising? Not really. Just take a look at some of the fine fellows who've made Time Magazine's list of Man of the Year over the past 70 years. Three cheers to 60 Minutes. In the course of one year they've managed to hype Jim Cramer as a...

Weekend Talk Show *Preview* for 7/8 and 7/9/06 (not the live thread)The main message is the Sunday Shows and message 1 will be the Saturday Shows,  then I'll post the ping list.  I've changed the format as a test this week and put the links to articles and background on the guests in with their listing in the shows.  It struck me that it might have been getting less helpful to have to jump back and forth.  Let me know which format works better.ABC This Week (George Stephanopoulos) Meme: Bush is all wrong about (Korea/Iraq/Immigration) and even Republicans think soNo...

Simple Bush hatred? Certainly it is an element. An East Coast, effete liberalism that considers legal governmental oversight as dangerous, and maybe more so than al Qaeda? Absolutely. Latent, reflexive anti-Americanism? Yes. But at root, it is a hubris that somehow, the job of the press to report information is on an equal footing with the obligation of government to protect us from our enemies. Which brings me to a telling installment of the great PBS series, Ethics in America, as recounted by Jack Dunphy: Nowhere was this mindset more vividly displayed than in a 1987 installment of the series...

NBC wants Mike Wallace, but does Mike Wallace want NBC? NBC News chief Steve Capus says the legendary CBS newsman can write his own ticket at 30 Rock. Wallace, in his 38th season at 60 Minutes, confirms that he and the network are talking. "I haven't made up my mind," says Wallace, who turns 88 on May 9. "I do feel a great loyalty to CBS. I've been there for 40 years. I'm there. I've been there. I want to continue to be there. "I've got to figure out my life." Wallace said in March that he would step down...

Mike Wallace, NBC News? NBC is actively pursuing the legendary CBS newsman, news division president Steve Capus and Wallace confirmed today. "Yes, I'm talking to NBC. Even this morning," says Wallace, 87, in his 38th season on 60 Minutes. He became "correspondent emeritus" in March, when he said he would step down as a regular correspondent in late May. At the time, he said he would stay at the network and be available "for whatever chores CBS News, 60 Minutes, etc., have in mind for me." Wallace turns 88 May 9. He joined CBS in 1951, left four years later...

Mike Wallace Wants to Interview Bush By DAVID BAUDER NEW YORK (AP) - Before he retires from "60 Minutes," Mike Wallace seems to have a better shot at interviewing the president of Iran than the president of the United States. It's not an obsession - more like a frustration - but the 87-year-old Wallace, who has interviewed every sitting president since Kennedy, is renewing his effort to sit down with President Bush. "I've never even shaken hands with the man," said Wallace, who announced last week he was retiring this spring as a correspondent for the CBS newsmagazine. Ever competitive,...

Journal Editorial Report (Paul Gigot) - FNC show page Meme: Fissures in the GOP - immigration Topics: "Are Republicans headed for a political meltdown over immigration?" (as per Opinion Journal web site)"Immigration reform controversy: We'll examine policies under consideration" (as per FNC show page)"Plus, what a hard line on immigration means for this year's midterm elections" (as per FNC show page) Guests Colorado Governor Bill Owens I have a plan, just like the plan that's failing the President Ramesh Ponnuru, National Review illegal immigration isn't really a problem, really Stephen Moore, Walls Street JournalJason Riley, Walls Street JournalPaul Gigot, Walls...

"60 Minutes" without Mike Wallace? It's almost like "Oprah" without Oprah. But yesterday Wallace, 87, confirmed that this season on the Sunday-night CBS News program will be his last. "The time comes, for crying out loud," Wallace said from his apartment in New York. "You want to do it while you still can, under your own power." Wallace said that he plans to remain at CBS News and that he will continue to work on occasional pieces as a "correspondent emeritus." At CBS News and in the TV business generally yesterday, there was speculation that the retirement is not Wallace's...

by Mark Finkelstein March 15, 2006 Was this a news report, or a coming attraction for a new series about inter-generational love? Perhaps there's a third explanation: a not-too-subtle kiss blown in the direction of a soon-to-be new employer. Amidst rampant speculation that Katie Couric might be leaving the Today show to anchor the CBS Evening News, Couric narrated a segment on this morning's Today on the occasion of Mike Wallace's announcement this week that he will be retiring from '60 Minutes'. If you think it's impossible to sustain a gush for five minutes, you obviously weren't watching Katie this...

NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- The acting editor in chief at the Village Voice has left the weekly alternative newspaper, two weeks after overseeing publication of an issue containing fabricated material. The Voice announced the departure of Doug Simmons on its Web site by posting a photograph of what appeared to be a paper napkin bearing a handwritten note from Village Voice Media Executive Editor Michael Lacey. ``Doug Simmons is no longer acting editor,'' the napkin said. ``Ward Harkavy, long time senior editor and Arizona crony, is now interim editor. Call us tomorrow for next update.'' In a brief telephone...

(CBS) NEW YORK Mike Wallace, the bull-dog co-host of "60 Minutes" since its premiere, announced today he will retire as he approaches his 88th birthday. Wallace said he's getting too old to travel and to maintain the busy schedule required of 60 Minutes correspondents. “I’ve often replied, when asked, ‘I’ll retire when my toes turn up’," said Wallace. “Well, they’re just beginning to curl a trifle, which means that, as I approach my 88th birthday, it’s become apparent to me that my eyes and ears, among other appurtenances, aren’t quite what they used to be. And the prospect of long...

'Minutes' man gets Rather curt CBS legend Don Hewitt hasn't been shy about criticizing Dan Rather, but the grand old man of "60 Minutes" had stopped short of publicly recommending termination for the central figure in CBS News' painful 2004 Memogate flap. Until yesterday. "Should Dan Rather have been fired?" Time magazine managing editor Jim Kelly asked the 83-year-old Hewitt during a Court TV journalism panel at Michael's. "Yes," Hewitt answered. He suggested that the 74-year-old Rather - a "60 Minutes" correspondent since stepping down last March as "Evening News" anchor - was politically motivated in airing a controversial pre-election...

Chris Wallace: Mike Wallace Has 'Lost It' "Fox News Sunday" anchorman Chris Wallace says father Mike Wallace has "lost it" - after the legendary CBS newsman told the Boston Globe last week that the fact George Bush had been elected president shows America is "[expletive]-up." "He's lost it. The man has lost it. What can I say," the younger Wallace lamented to WRKO Boston radio host Howie Carr on Friday. "He's 87-years old and things have set in," the Fox anchor continued. "I mean, we're going to have a competence hearing pretty soon." Wallace Jr. quickly dispelled any notion that...

Mike Wallace has bemoaned the state of television news in general and of 60 Minutes in particular. In an interview with the Boston Globe, Wallace remarked, "The days of Walter Cronkite and Huntley and Brinkley are gone. People still do watch, but it doesn't have the clout that it used to have. I don't know what's going to happen or if there will be an evening news 10 years from now. It's a very expensive operation to keep up." Wallace also lamented the falling ratings of his own 60 Minutes, where he has had the title of co-editor since 1968....

Mike Wallace says President Bush is afraid to be interviewed by him. The 87-year old reporter for “60 Minutes” made the comment on MSNBC’s “Hardball” earlier this week, in an exchange with host Chris Matthews. MATTHEWS: So why is the man in the oval office afraid of the man on “60 Minutes”? Mike, why is George W. the man in the White House afraid to interview you. WALLACE: Because he pays attention strictly to Karl Rove and that’s why from the very beginning that Karl Rove will not permit him to sit down with me. After seeing this, I can’t...

"Fox News Sunday" host Chris Wallace says he "hammered" his father Mike Wallace on the bias at CBS News during a taped interview set for broadcast on his own show Sunday morning. "I hammer my father about the mainstream media," Wallace told WRKO Boston's Howie Carr on Friday. "I hammer him about Dan Rather and the fake memos." Wallace said he told his Dad: "Isn't the reason that Dan Rather and '60 Minutes,' they were so quick to believe those memos is because they and others like you, card-carrying fellow travelers - isn't it a fact that they are quick...

NEW YORK - Before arriving at a TV studio Thursday for an interview to promote his memoir, Mike Wallace had a feeling that hundreds of people who had sat across from him with the cameras rolling would find familiar. "I was intimidated ahead of time, I have to say," he said. "Who knows what he really had in mind?" His interrogator was his son, Chris. Their talk, taped for "Fox News Sunday," represented the first time father and son had crossed paths professionally in careers that together stretches three-quarters of a century. For Chris, 58, it felt unusual primarily because...

Mike Wallace could be barred by his own network from covering gun-related stories on CBS News. The "60 Minutes" showboat correspondent appeared at a birthday party for columnist Art Buchwald -- a party that was also a fundraiser for the Brady Center, a prominent advocate of gun control laws. At the event Wallace showed a 47-second video of a past "60 Minutes" segment that, by Wallace's own admission, cast former NRA President Charlton Heston in a less-than-favorable light. In introducing the video, Wallace called Heston the "self-righteous enemy of the Sarah and Jim Brady bunch," according to a CBS News...

''60 Minutes'' stalwart Mike Wallace has written a book about his long, illustrious broadcast career – but don't expect to hear about it on CBS. Word is, the news magazine show anchor – and Brookline homey – has taped an interview on the Vineyard with rival NBC's Katie Couric to promote his new tome. It will reportedly air on ''Dateline'' Friday and again on Katie's ''Today'' show the following Monday. Which is Rather odd, considering that Wallace is a wholly owned subsidiary of CBS and ''Dateline'' is ''60 Minutes' '' main competition! ''Neither `60 Minutes' nor CBS is doing it,''...

CBS News' ethical standards are being challenged after veteran reporter Mike Wallace's appearance at an anti-gun Brady Center fund-raiser in Washington, D.C., last month. At the event, held at the French Embassy, Wallace played a clip of his "60 Minutes" interview with then-NRA president Charlton Heston, whom he described as the "self-righteous enemy of the Jim and Sarah Brady Bunch," reported blogger and radio host Cam Edwards at NRANews.com. Edwards said that afterwards, Wallace mocked Heston by holding up his hands, as if holding a rifle, and saying, "in my dead hands ... remember when he used to hold up...

LDS Church President Gordon B. Hinckley "was not and is not happy with the war in Iraq," CBS newsman Mike Wallace said Friday. "He deplores what's going on there." The longtime reporter, who interviewed Hinckley for "60 Minutes" in 1995, was in Utah to participate in Hinckley's 95th birthday gala at the LDS Conference Center in downtown Salt Lake City. "It wasn't an interview situation, so I didn't press'' Hinckley, Wallace told a half-dozen or so reporters. "But I was sorry I didn't have a camera." LDS spokesman Dale Bills was quick to say the church "has no position on...

Embattled CBS anchorman Dan Rather is set to finally bow out on Wednesday. For a bunch of folks---that can't get here soon enough. In the last couple of weeks, even CBS people have turned on him, claiming they don't even watch the CBS Evening News. --"He's not as easy to watch as [Peter] Jennings or [Tom] Brokaw," said "60 Minutes" correspondent Mike Wallace in this week's The New Yorker magazine. -- Legendary anchor Walter Cronkite, who recommended Rather for a job years ago, told the magazine he preferred watching Brokaw - who retired last year - because Rather looked like...

WALLACE CALLS IT FOR W? [KJL] A reader: "Mike Wallace (U of Michigan Grad) was at the UM/MSU football game this afternoon. Just before halftime, he was a guest in the radio booth. UM announcers asked him to predict the outcome of (i) the game (he correctly predicted UM -- winner in triple overtime) and (ii) the election (Wallace predicted Bush)." Posted at 09:35 PM

This is not new, but deserves re-telling A few years ago, Peter Jennings, Mike Walace, Gen Westmoreland (Ret.) and about a dozen others participated in a PBS round table discussion of American media covering the war. Dan Rather was not there. In this program, Mike Wallace admitted that he would let American soldiers die so he could "get the story." He later described the event to Charlie Gibson. - - - Start Mike Wallace interview with Charlie Gibson. - - - - "It was one of those Fred Friendly seminars on television and the hypothetical (question) was that Jennings, Wallace,...

CBS's Mike Wallace got caught again; this time fooling his "60 Minutes" audience with a phony document that made it look like a U.S. Customs official was trying to help Mexican drug smugglers. On April 20, 1997, Wallace hosted a "60 Minutes" segment that claimed Customs officials were allowing trucks with drugs to cross easily into the United States. As proof of his allegations Wallace cited what he claimed was a U.S. Customs memo written by Rudy Camacho, then the San Diego Customs district director. Last week, Michael Horner, a Customs department whistleblower who had anonymously provided Wallace and "60...