TIME Preview: George Clooney On Freedom of the Press -- And Running for President

Posted Thursday, October 4, 2007 12:00 am

By: E&P Staff It had to happen. In the next edition of TIME magazine, coming tomorrow, actor/activist George Clooney is asked if he would consider running for president.

Clooney replies: ?No. As an advocate, I can take a side and stand by it and not have to worry about ticking off some constituents who helped get me elected. I don?t want all those kinds of strings attached.?

Asked about celebrity news frenzy -- leading, for example, to the death of Princess Diana -- Clooney took a strong stand for freedom of the press: "I am the son of an anchorman. I am a First Amendment guy....You can't restrict freedom of speech or the press, even if it is miserable."

In this issue, TIME will also roll out its new weekly feature, the CampaignBriefing page. It includes the Godometer, a weekly measure of how candidates are using religion in their campaign -- with the assistance of the Beliefnet site. This one gives Sen. John McCain a score of 8 for trying so hard to appeal to Evangelicals.

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TIME Preview: George Clooney On Freedom of the Press -- And Running for President

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