60 Minutes one-sided report on
Clinton
Media Matters
October 7, 2005
The October 9 broadcast of CBS' 60 Minutes will feature an interview with
former FBI director Louis Freeh, whose upcoming book My FBI: Bringing Down the
Mafia, Investigating Bill Clinton, and Fighting the War on Terror (St. Martin's
Press) reportedly contains "scathing" criticism of President Clinton.
But, according to an October 7 New York Sun article (subscription required),
CBS "refused to tape interviews with former Clinton administration officials
who disagree with the former FBI director's allegations, according to people
familiar with the situation." Washington Post media critic Howard Kurtz
reported that "[t]he Clinton camp says '60 Minutes' would not accept any
surrogate to rebut Freeh on camera once the former president declined to be
interviewed."
60 Minutes' refusal to accept a surrogate in place of Clinton is
inconsistent with the way the show handled a similar story about a book
critical of President Bush. On March 21, 2004, 60 Minutes ran a segment about
former National Security Council counterterrorism coordinator Richard Clarke's
then-upcoming book, Against All Enemies: Inside America's War on Terror (Free
Press, March 2004). The segment included not only an exclusive interview with
Clarke but also an interview with Bush administration National Security Council
official Stephen Hadley, who was given time to defend Bush from Clarke's
criticism.
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