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Marketwatch’s Jon Friedman is a great media writer, almost always guaranteed to give you a different way to view MediaLand. But in his most recent column discussing the wanton coverage given to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s visit to New York, he … uhm, sort of lost me.

We all saw the stories and the attendant breathless news coverage: Mahmoud wants to lay a wreath at the World Trade Center site! Mahmoud’s going to Columbia University to talk! Mahmoud’s talking to the UN! And, yes, Mahmoud's talking with "60 Minutes!" My take on last week’s “Morning Joe” was that Ahmadinejad was playing the media like a fiddle, saying a few outlandish things here and there to spur discussion and draw attention.

Friedman’s suggestion, though? Ignore him.

What if ...

What if the media had largely ignored him? Can a wannabe newsmaker make news if there is no media coverage?

What if reporters didn't try so hard to make such a big story out of his visit?

I know this would have been unrealistic, if not impossible. Just the same, I would've loved to see it. If that had happened, the U.S. media could've shown Iran's president just who's the boss over here.

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Interviews with controversial figures often, and inevitably, become those that are the most-watched and the most talked about. As Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has become far more amenable to interviews with Western journalists than ever, those interviews are generating substantial reaction from audiences.

NBC “Nightly News” Anchor Brian Williams’ interview with Ahmadinejad this week is generating much of the similarly impassioned reaction from viewers as CBS received following Mike Wallace’s interview with the Iranian leader. On Wednesday evening, Williams read a few such e-mails, many of which expressed disappointment that the interview was conducted at all. For example, Williams read this e-mail, from a viewer in Flushing, N.Y.:

"I was very disappointed that NBC's Brian Williams gave a forum to Iranian President Ahmadinejad. He treated him as he would any rational leader from any other country, while the truth is he is not rational at all. I think President Bush was right not to meet with him, and I think Brian Williams did a disservice by interviewing him."

That sentiment was similar to many of the e-mails we received from viewers regarding Wallace’s interview, and we later discussed the issue with Bob Anderson, who produced the story (you can read that story here.) “Whenever you interview someone who's controversial, there are always those who think he shouldn't be interviewed,” Anderson told us at the time.

Interviewing Ahmadinejad, says Anderson, is “not an endorsement of his policies,” he said, adding that “the tenor of Mike's questions probably indicated as much.”

“It’s an opportunity for the American people to hear his view of the world,” said Anderson. “And the audience can take its own measure” of the Iranian president.

In light of that, it seemed worth noting Williams’ response to viewers with a negative impression of the interview, which he conveyed on the “Nightly News’” blog:

If you watched last night's broadcast, you saw and heard a small selection of the e-mails we've been getting -- most having to do with our interview of the President of Iran. A staggering number of e-mails are harshly negative, and the writers vehemently argue that we should not have interviewed Ahmadinejad and should not air his comments on NBC...

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As the president of one of the countries that President Bush has identified as part of the axis of evil, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is a world leader who garners a lot of attention and one who rarely gives interviews to Western media. He did grant an interview to Mike Wallace, which aired on “60 Minutes” Sunday, and again last night, uncut, on C-SPAN. (You can also watch the full interview here.) According to producer Bob Anderson, who produced the story for "60 Minutes," CBS News had been chasing an interview with the Iranian president for some time. It was CBS's “fixer,” or liason, in Tehran, Sia Zand, who had been in touch with the Ahmadinejad administration with an ongoing request to interview the president. In July, the press office called and said the president would be interested in granting Wallace an interview. Although Anderson isn’t entirely sure why Wallace got the interview, his best guess is that “we were probably helped by Mike’s stature in Iran,” given that Wallace had interviewed the Shah, the Ayatollah Khomeini and former President Hashemi Rafsanjani in the past.

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The Mike Wallace interview with Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has unleashed a flood of reaction. The comments that have come in on Public Eye and on the news story are filled with conversation about Middle East politics and the like (not all so pleasant, let’s keep the level of discourse up here folks), but we want to stick to the interview itself. We noted the criticism being leveled at Wallace and CBS News based just on the excerpts released on Friday. Now that we’ve all had a chance to see it, we’d love to hear your thoughts on Wallace and the interview. Here’s a smattering of what’s landed in our in-box thus far:

One e-mailer wrote:

I thought Mike Wallace was out of line and I thought the President did a great job of handling rude, and confrontational questions well. Not the right guy for the interview. I was impressed with the President of Iran. Well spoken ,articulate, had a sense of humor. And, yes, I love the United States but that was not handled well.

Another wrote:

I think that your interview was appalling. It's a real shame that CBS has no allegiance to the US, especially while we're at war. Why don't you ever show any of the positive things that are happening because of our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, instead of giving a known terrorist a platform to spew his garbage? You should be ashamed of yourself -- CBS news will never be on in my home again.

And still another:

It's about time you give Iran's perspective. Mike Wallace is showing his true colors when he cuts the President of Iran off. I have watched 60 minutes for 30 of my 45 years on this planet this is what we need in this world - open dialogue!

I applaud 60 minutes - keep the real stories coming and we will watch.

Curious to see more of the exchange? The full, un-edited interview will be available on CBSNews.com later today and will also air on C-SPAN tonight at 8:00pm, ET.

Update: The complete interview in three parts can be seen here.

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It hasn’t aired yet but the reviews are already coming in for Mike Wallace’s exclusive interview with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. We took a look at what people are saying in the new comments feature to the article. Some are looking forward to seeing it, most are incensed that CBS would even air it. One commenter, gjd741, remembers Dan Rather’s interview with Saddam Hussein just prior to the U.S. invasion of Iraq and asks:

What is it with CBS? First Saddam Hussein, now this creep! Don't you guys have any allegiance to America anymore? Goodness, it is where you got your start and where your world headquarters are. I'm switching to Fox.

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CBS News correspondent Elizabeth Palmer reported recently on a press conference held by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has faced the Iranian media only twice since taking office and has never taken questions from foreign journalists. You can watch the video of her story by clicking on the player. Below, she offers a look behind-the-scenes of that experience:

As soon as the British Airways flight from London taxis to a stop at the Meherabad airport terminal, the women on board stand and reach into the overhead bins for their Islamically correct overclothes – a loose coverall called a “manteau,” and a headscarf.

I have arranged for an Iranian colleague, Sia, to bring one of his wife’s manteaus to the airport for me, but it suddenly dawns on me that I’ve miscalculated. Dressed for a London spring in light trousers and a bright T-shirt, I realize I have nothing to cover up with for the 200 yards through immigration and the baggage hall. I wonder, briefly, whether I’ll be turned back before I’ve begun – shackled into my seat while the plane refuels and returns me to London for immodesty.

Then, my producer comes to the rescue with his raincoat – a short, sand-coloured, canvas model that makes me look like a 1950’s cleaning lady, but gets me safely to the hotel.

That afternoon, shrouded in Sia’s wife’s black manteau, we set out for a press conference with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the democratically elected president of Iran. The room is crowded with journalists.

Many of them are women, dressed - like me - in dark manteaus and scarves. To a Western eye, these look severe and puritanical. It’s an easy assumption that women who have given in to this oppressive code of dress have had their spirits and ambitions smothered too. But in Iran, a complex and fractured country, nothing is as it seems. These are as tough-minded and assertive a bunch of female reporters as you’d find in any American news conference.

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