Carthage Press Managing Editor Neil Campbell sent staff photographer Ron Graber and me to cover an appearance by a national political name, a man who was rumored to be considering a 1996 presidential run.
Neil made it clear that Leggett officials told him we could cover the man's speech but I wasn't going to be able to interview him. The former government official had already dealt with area media during a press conference at the Joplin Regional Airport.
I nodded as Neil passed on the instructions.
Challenge accepted.
As soon as we left the newsroom, Ron, who had been at the Press for a little over a year and who knew my approach to reporting, asked me how I was going to do it.
I didn't know, but I wasn't going to leave Leggett & Platt without an interview with former Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney.
Cheney was ostensibly in southwest Missouri to help Seventh District Congressman Mel Hancock launch his re-election campaign. Hancock, who had already served three terms, announced during that airport press conference that his fourth term would be his last.
While Cheney was there to support Hancock, he was also laying the groundwork for a presidential campaign.
The room was jampacked and I wasn't able to get anywhere near either Cheney or Hancock. As Ron moved into position to take photos, I worked my way around the room trying to figure out how to get to Cheney after he finished speaking and hobnobbing with all of the local Republicans.
After more than 32 years, it's difficult to remember anything Cheney said, except there were a few well-received criticisms of President Bill Clinton and Cheney joked about his presidential aspirations, saying he had talked with former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Colin Powell about the campaign and neither could decide which one should be the presidential candidate and which one should be the vice presidential candidate.
The crowd thought the joke was funny.
I would say you had to be there to understand why people laughed, but I was there and I still don't think it was that funny.
When Cheney finished, as expected people gathered around him. I moved around the circle and hung in there as people left and were replaced by other people. Finally, as Cheney started to pull away, I made my move.
"Mr. Secretary," I said.
He turned and before he could say no, I asked him three questions as an impatient Leggett official waited to take him away.
It would make a better story if I could say that I asked him deft, incisive questions and that he was impressed by the skill of a small-town reporter.
With the passage of 32 years, I have no idea what I asked him. I only remember that he politely answered the questions.
What I do remember is that I didn't use the answers to the questions in my story, which should give you a reasonably good idea of their quality.
Dick Cheney, the only future vice president I ever interviewed, if you could call it that, died Monday at age 84.
2 comments:
That says more about you than it does about him.
He will always be a war criminal when the history books aren't written by (alternative facts) right wingers. Absolutely deplorable leadership that cost so many innocent lives. His daughter will be known as a true American hero. He will not.
Post a Comment