You may be seeing the story of Jonathan Pollard on TV news shows today. He’s the former Navy intelligence officer who was convicted of spying for Israel. Pollard was released today after spending 30 years of a life sentence in prison.
In 1988, Pollard sat down for his first interview following his incarceration with 60 Minutes’ Mike Wallace. The interview exists in the online archives and we’ve embedded it below. What stood out to us watching the video, was the set-up Wallace gave the story: the “months of negotiations with the U.S. Department of Justice. ” The conditions CBS News agreed to in order to conduct the interview, even Wallace admitting “we erased two of Pollards words from our videotape.” It’s rare today to hear a TV news reporter explain the conditions placed upon them in exchange for an interview.