Fox News’ Chris Wallace Appears In The Latest Issue Of Playboy (Not Naked)

We all know that the current issue of Playboy features pictures of naked Lindsay Lohan. But, lets be honest, you already looked at them. So, is there anything else worthwhile in the issue? Well, in addition to what I can only assume is another incredibly helpful edition of “The Playboy Advisor” (how will I find the perfect bottle of full-bodied cabernet to persuade my wife to have a threeway?) there’s also a pretty great interview with Fox News’ Chris Wallace. In it, he discusses the state of the Obama presidency, his high-profile scuffles with Jon Stewart, and growing up as immersed in television journalism as anyone could possibly be.

After talk of Wallace’s thoughts on the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street, the interview turns, as always, to questions of Fox News’ bias. Wallace reacts just like every other “straight” Fox anchor; with a healthy amount of annoyance. “You want to get into the whole right-wing thing?” he asks the interviewer (Playboy Contributing Editor David Hochman). After that, things get more cordial as Wallace talks about whether or not the tax rate of millionaires should go up and how he manages to remember all his facts and stats while interviewing people live on air.

Then things turn to the massive brouhaha last summer over Jon Stewart’s appearance on Fox News Sunday.

“PLAYBOY: On Fox News Sunday last summer, Jon Stewart called you ‘insane’ for insisting you’re not biased. Was there a moment when you regretted inviting him on the show?

WALLACE: Not at all. First of all, I think he’s an interesting political player. I also think he’s funny. Even when he’s criticizing me, I usually laugh. He’s wrongheaded sometimes, but I think he’s a genuinely clever, smart guy. Frankly, I thought it would be entertaining for our audience to see him on the show.

…

PLAYBOY: He said your role at Fox is to ‘bring credibility and an integrity to an organization that might not otherwise have it without your presence,’ adding that a partisan ideological agenda is ‘the soup you swim in.’ On The Daily Show afterward he mockingly said the beauty of your news network is how it has managed to achieve ‘a narrative of conservative victimization’ that is ‘airtighter than an otter’s anus.’

WALLACE: Well, I assure you Jon knows more about otters’ anuses than I do. I also think Stewart lives in far too transparent a house to be throwing stones. The thing I’ve noticed about him is this: He rightly points out that he criticizes Democrats as well as Republicans, but he criticizes conservatives for being conservative. He criticizes Democrats for being ineffective. It isn’t that their ideas are wrong; it’s that they’re not carrying them out sufficiently. It’s that they’re not liberal enough, not tough enough, not Democratic enough. He criticizes Republicans for being too Republican.”

The interview also discusses Wallace’s long career in journalism. Wallace has a lot of intriguing thoughts, including his opinion that all White House press conferences are horribly “scripted” and have been ever since George H. W. Bush started clamping down on things.

Things go even farther back, focusing on the fact that Wallace was basically born into this. His father, of course, was Mike Wallace, while his step-father was Bill Leonard. Amidst Wallace’s fascinating stories of building a relationship with his biological father and the pain that accusations of nepotism caused him early in his career, perhaps the best part of the whole article comes when he talks about being a gofer for Walter Cronkite for the 1964 Republican convention at age 16. Why? Because of this:

“PLAYBOY: What do you remember most about working with Cronkite?

WALLACE: What I remember most is his daughter Nancy, to tell you the truth. I fell madly in love with her. She was my first girlfriend. She didn’t look at all like Walter, thankfully. She was this beautiful 15-year-old blonde. That was when my dad was anchoring The CBS Morning News and Walter, of course, was doing the evening news. The correspondents all loved seeing Nancy and me together. They said it was like a merging of the two divisions.

PLAYBOY: Are you implying that Walter Cronkite’s daughter was your first sexual conquest?

WALLACE: I know this is Playboy, but you’ve got to be kidding!

PLAYBOY: We are merely interested in chronicling this untold story from media history.

WALLACE: Right, sure. She was my first girlfriend. That’s all you’re going to get.”

It’s a pretty great interview and a good read. Check it out here. Or buy it at the newsstands. If you do that, it comes with pictures of Lindsay Lohan’s boobs.

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