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Journalists who don’t play by the rules often don’t get access to the most powerful people. At press conferences their raised hands are ignored. Their phone calls are not returned. Their queries are handled by low-level assistants. But sometimes top politicians and business leaders who talk only under the managed conditions and grant interviews only to the journalists they know are caught in the headlights of a free press. One such instance occurred before the 2000 elections. President Clinton went on the record and answered questions on substantive issues, when all he intended to do was make a packaged get-out-the-vote statement. [includes rush transcript]