A juxtaposition of personalities occurred Monday as President Gordon B. Hinckley of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints met with hard-bitten journalist Mike Wallace of the CBS news show "60 Minutes."
"He asked some incisive questions. That's his business. That's his way, but he's a very able reporter," President Hinckley said after the interview.The two met in President Hinckley's Salt Lake office for a taped interview, then took a stroll around Temple Square, with an entourage of cameramen and attendants following.
The interview, which the show's producer said was designed to inform viewers about LDS Church members, was set to air sometime in February.
President Hinckley met Wallace at a Nov. 13 luncheon at New York City's Harvard Club, where President Hinckley spoke to several business industry and media leaders.
Earlier that day, President Hinckley had met with President Clinton in Washington, D.C., where he extolled the importance of family and presented the chief executive with a copy of his personal family history.
At the New York luncheon, Wallace publicly requested an interview with the LDS Church leader. In response, President Hinckley spoke of how, on his mission to the British Isles, he would preach atop a soapbox in London's Hyde Park. Often he had to make himself heard over hecklers interrupting his speeches.
"After an experience like that, Mike Wallace doesn't look too formidable," he said, prompting laughter from the crowd gathered at the luncheon.
So was he, in fact, a formidable interviewer?
"It's been intense," said Bruce Olsen, managing director of church public affairs. "Mike Wallace asked tough questions, but President Hinckley was well-prepared."
"Surveys show that 70 percent or more of Americans don't know much at all about Mormons - even if they're Christian or not," said Robert Anderson Jr., a producer for "60 Minutes."
"We felt it would serve our viewers to know a little of what Mormons are all about," he said.
Interview requests from national media personalities like Wallace are a far cry from President Hinckley's first encounters with media big shots. As a missionary, he was once assigned to approach a British book publisher to protest the distribution of an anti-Mormon book.
The young missionary was forced to sit in a waiting room cooling his heels for two or three hours before the publisher finally consented to see him.
(In the end, the encounter turned out well. The publisher finally decided to insert a statement in each book saying it was fiction and not intended to reflect badly on Mormons.)
Local reporters were not allowed to hear the interviewer's questions on Monday, but by all accounts, Wallace did not pull any punches. Nevertheless, the newsman said he was impressed with the environs.
"There's a feeling in here of stability," he said as he walked through the church administration building.