C-SPAN has agreed to air the Mike Wallace Interview with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in its entirety Aug. 14, after CBS airs an edited piece on 60 Minutes the night before.
CBS News told C-SPAN the request came from the Iranian leader himself. It is the fourth such Mike Wallace interview with foreign leaders to get such play on C-SPAN, the others with the then President of Iran Rafsanjani in 1997, as well as the president of Columbia in 1999 and China in 2000.
The cable public affairs net will air the 60 Minutes edited version, followed by the full 90-minute interview, to give viewers a window on what is left on the cutting room floor.
The interview will air Sunday night at 7 on CBS, Monday night at 8 on C-SPAN, followed by an open-phone discussion. It will also be simulcast on CBS Radio.
“We agreed with CBS News that airing this interview in its entirety is very much in the public interest and fits with C-SPAN’s style of airing events as they happened and without commercials,” said C-SPAN VP of Programming Terry Murphy in a release.
