Collins On Covering Rudy
According to the book's description, "Grand Illusion reveals how Giuliani has revised his own history, casting himself as prescient terror hawk when in fact he ran his administration as if terrorist threats simply did not exist, too distracted by pet projects and turf wars to attend to vital precautions." Booklist writes that "[d]espite his much-vaunted leadership and talk of his prescience to develop a response team after the 1993 attack, Barrett and Collins maintain that Giuliani failed New Yorkers in myriad ways." Publishers Weekly claims that the "Giuliani who emerges from these pages-shrewd, calculating, indomitable-remains an impressive figure, but one that will give voters pause."
I asked Collins if he had any concerns about covering Giuliani in the presidential race in light of his authorship of the book.
"Sure, it's a concern," said Collins. "I've given the staff written instructions to play Giuliani down the middle." Collins says he will continue to edit stories about the candidate. "We're going to go down the middle on all the candidates, Republican or Democratic," he continued. "We've done that since before the book was conceived, while we were writing it, and we'll continue to do that now."