New York City is the media capital of the world and clearly that played into the political calculations of the President of Iran, Mahmood Ahmadinejad. Charlie Rose devoted a full hour to Ahmadinejad, and the ''60 Minutes'' 40th Season's Premiere opened with Scott Pelley's interview of Ahmadinejad. The Chattering Classes parsed his every word, and what did we learn? Not much. Jon Friedman writes in Marketwatch:

''The man played us for suckers -- just like any PR-hungry celebrity who spins reporters and editors. The bottom line was that he knew more about how the American media works than they knew about him.''

Friedman credits Neil King Jr. of the Wall Street Journal as having correctly discerned the political theater and contrived rhetoric involved in the lead up to a United Nations visit.