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Time - Man of the Year
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Time_Man_of_the_Year_Compact_Publishing_3YX-Disc-1_Compact_Publishing_1993.iso
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1992-09-10
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3KB
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FROM THE PUBLISHER, Page 6
Smoking out the true nature of a presidential contender is
never easy, but with not-yet-declared candidate Ross Perot, the
journalistic challenge has been especially tough. The
billionaire businessman comes with neither a political track
record nor detailed position papers, and two weeks ago, he
announced he was cutting back on press appearances, which had
grown increasingly heated. Sensitive to criticism when it hits
home, Perot made no secret of the fact that he was unhappy with
his coverage in TIME -- especially a story in the April 6 issue
that said he had displayed a "thirst for publicity."
So when Houston bureau chief Richard Woodbury approached
Perot to arrange the in-depth interview that appears in this
issue, the first thing Woodbury got was an earful. "Perot is a
quirky, prickly guy," says Woodbury. "We defended our reporting,
but he wouldn't stop complaining. He really held our hands to
the fire." It took a series of extended phone calls, a formal
letter and a long phone conversation with managing editor Henry
Muller before TIME finally got its foot in the door.
It was worth the effort. The session, conducted in Perot's
Dallas offices by Muller, Woodbury and senior writer Walter
Shapiro, ended up running for three hours. Shapiro, who has
covered every presidential campaign since 1980, describes it as
one of the most extraordinary experiences of his career. "For
once we had the luxury of waiting out the sound bites, asking
the follow-up questions and then getting on to totally fresh
stuff. It's a wonderful moment when you realize you've been able
to sort out those things he really knows, those things that are
smart but that he has not been able to explain well, and those
things that still do not make much sense. You can't do that on
TV. You can't do it in a one-hop fuselage interview with Bill
Clinton. And you certainly can't do it with George Bush."
That kind of access may grow scarce as the campaign warms
up. Woodbury, who has covered Perot since 1986, notes that the
take-charge Texan still works without handlers, travels without
aides and returns his own phone calls. But with his funds
unlimited and his polls still zooming, Perot can afford to be
eccentric. "As the pressures grow, it will be interesting to see
how long the homespun style can endure," says Woodbury. "I'll
know it's a new ball game if a media adviser starts returning
my calls instead of the man himself."
-- Elizabeth P. Valk