In the long interview with Al-Hayat, its editor-in-chief, Ghassan Shribil (formerly of An-Nahar) notes that Talabani always makes time for journalists. He forgot to add that Talalabani does what Rafiq Hariri used to do: he puts journalists on the payroll. So many of Iraq's journalists receive cash payments from him (read about that in the profile of Talabani by Jon Lee Anderson in the New Yorker).