TIME.com Print Page: TIME Magazine -- 10 Questions For Mike ...

TIME.com Print Page: TIME Magazine -- 10 Questions For Mike Wallace
YOU HAVE BEEN QUITE PUBLIC ABOUT YOUR DEPRESSION, WHICH
STARTED 20 YEARS AGO, DURING THE LIBEL TRIAL WILLIAM
WESTMORELAND V. CBS. DID THE TRIAL TRIGGER WHAT WAS
ALREADY THERE I have a hunch that my mother suffered from depression. But
when you're called a liar, a cheat and a fraud, you worry about it. I couldn't eat,
couldn't sleep, thought about suicide. My wife Mary said, "You're depressed." My
own doctor said, "Don't talk about depression. You're a tough guy. It's bad for your
image to suggest that you're depressed." That happens a lot with doctors. They're
worried about the stigma, and they do not understand depression.
WHAT DO YOU TAKE NOW Zoloft.
HOW DO YOU PREPARE FOR AN INTERVIEW I take a yellow pad and
categorize my questions. Ambition, motivation, greed, joy, defeat ... 50, 75 questions.
And then what happens is, when an interviewee is maybe reluctant to really let it
come out, you establish the chemistry of confidentiality with these questions. They
begin to understand I know an awful lot about them, and I cared enough to read and
look at and worry about the questions.
AND YOU OFTEN PAUSE AFTER THEIR ANSWERS. That's right. They get
embarrassed by the silence, and they begin to fill the silence. Suddenly they begin to
really talk.
WHO DO YOU LIKE AS AN INTERVIEWER Ted Koppel, Barbara Walters,
Charlie Rose. Larry King can be very good.
YOU SAY IN YOUR BOOK THAT YOU LOST RESPECT FOR DON HEWITT
ABOUT HOW HE HANDLED YOUR PIECE ON JEFFREY WIGAND, THE
TOBACCO-COMPANY WHISTLE-BLOWER WHOSE TALE WAS RETOLD IN
THE INSIDER. We had a serious difference of opinion on that piece. But 60 Minutes
would not have happened without him, and for me to say that I lost respect for him is
over the top.
YOUR EPITAPH Tough but fair.
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