What Charlie Rose had to do to get the Assad interview

Associated Press has the background story on how Charlie Rose nabbed Syria President Bashar al-Assad for an exclusive that aired Monday:

Rose, who is host of "CBS This Morning" in addition to his own PBS interview show, landed the interview with a promise that PBS would air the talk at the same length as an interview Rose had done with President Barack Obama this summer. That's how it played out, although the Assad talk was edited slightly for length. ...

Assad got the format he wanted. But along with a time conflict with the U.S. Open, it may have cost him in terms of audience size.

In the interview with Rose, Assad would neither confirm nor deny that his government held chemical weapons. Assad did deny, however, that it has used the weapons on government rebels.

@eScarry