Janet Reno, Religious Bigot?

The following quotation has been spread on many email lists, on Usenet newsgroups, and is featured on a few web pages as well. It is supposed to be from an interview Janet Reno gave to the CBS television news magazine show "60 Minutes":

>Attorney General Janet Reno said:
>
>"A cultist is one who has a strong belief in the Bible and the Second Coming
>of Christ; who frequently attends Bible studies; who has a high level of
>financial giving to a Christian cause; who home schools for their children;
>who has accumulated survival foods and has a strong belief in the Second
>Amendment; and who distrusts big government.
> 
>Any of these may qualify a person as a cultist but certainly more than one of
>these would cause us to look at this person as a threat, and his family as
>being in a risk situation that qualified for government interference."
>
>                       Janet Reno,  Attny. Gen., US of A
>                       Interview on 60 Minutes, June 26, 1994

Scary stuff, right? Practically half the nation must qualify as cultists under this definition. So is it true?

Well, I checked the CBS TV Web Site (http://www.cbs.com), followed the links to http://www.cbs.com/prd1/now/template.display?p_story=62389 and got a look at the transcript ordering information.

As instructed, I called 1-800-777-TEXT. I asked if the transcript company had the transcript for the 60 Minutes show from June 26, 1994.

The nice lady said, what is the subject. I said, it's supposed to be an interview with Janet Reno, but I have my doubts.

She said, it's just an internet rumor. That interview never happened.

added October 7, 1998