Palin to Do First Television Interview on ABC

[Dos Equis]

Palin to Do First Television Interview on ABC
by Associated Press
Sunday, September 7, 2008
 
ALBEQUERQUE, N.M. — Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin plans to sit down later this week for her first television interview since John McCain chose her as his running mate more than a week ago.

The first-term Alaska governor has given speeches, alongside McCain and at the Republican National Convention, since McCain introduced her as his surprise vice presidential pick on Aug. 29.

McCain campaign manager Rick Davis said Sunday that Palin would be made available “when we think it’s time and when she feels comfortable doing it.”

Later, a McCain-Palin adviser said Sunday that an interview was offered several days ago to Charles Gibson of ABC News. The adviser spoke on condition of anonymity because an official announcement had not been made.

The adviser said the interview was expected to take place later this week in Alaska. Palin is expected to return to her state at midweek after more joint appearances with McCain.

An ABC News spokeswoman said the network had no comment.

McCain, who appeared on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” said he expected Palin to start doing interviews “in the next few days.”

Davis complained that the media has focused too much on the 44-year-old Palin’s personal life. Many of those stories came after McCain’s campaign announced that Palin’s 17-year-old daughter was pregnant. News reports also have questioned her record as a reformer in Alaska.

“She’s not scared to answer questions,” Davis said on “Fox News Sunday.” “But you know what? We run our campaign, not the news media. And we’ll do things on our timetable.”

Palin won over GOP loyalists with her speech last week at the Republican convention in St. Paul, Minn. But Democrats and even some Republicans have questioned whether she is ready to answer unscripted questions about national and international issues.

“Why would we want to throw Sarah Palin into a cycle of piranhas called the news media that have nothing better to ask questions about than her personal life and her children?” Davis said. “So until at which point in time we feel like the news media is going to treat her with some level of respect and deference, I think it would be foolhardy to put her out into that kind of environment.”

Palin’s Democratic counterpart, Sen. Joe Biden, a veteran of the Sunday talk show circuit, challenged Palin to sit for interviews.

“Eventually she’s going to have to sit in front of you like I’m doing and have done,” Biden said on “Meet the Press” on NBC. “Eventually she’s going to have to answer questions and not be sequestered. Eventually she’s going to have to answer questions about her record.”ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -

http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/09/07/palin-to-do-first-television-interview-on-abc/

[youandme]

Gibson is a good choice! He's neutral and puts journalism before his party affiliation. She will be asked some tough questions, and he gets answers out of people.

[240 is Back]

Gibson is a good choice! He's neutral

we need a list of which networks/anchors are lib, and which are fair and balanced.

[Benny B]

ABC's Gibson and Snuffalufagus are both terrible.

Slow Slide Into Oblivion
09.08.08 -- 12:35AM
By Josh Marshall

I spent most of the day today traveling and then giving a talk up at Union College a few hours north of New York City. So I was offline most of the day. And though I heard about Charlie Gibson bagging the first interview with Sarah Palin, I was eager to get home and read the details.

Well, now I've read them. And it's pretty clear this farce is going to be close to unwatchable. Set aside that this comes just on the heels of McCain campaign manager Rick Davis saying Palin would not sit for any interviews "until the point in time when she'll be treated with respect and deference." The tell comes high up in the AP story by David Bauder. The second graf reads ...

    Palin will sit down for multiple interviews with Gibson in Alaska over two days, most likely Thursday and Friday, said McCain adviser Mark Salter.

Political interviews are never done like this. Because it makes the questioning entirely at the discretion of the person being interviewed and their handlers. The interviewer has to be on their best behavior, at least until the last of the 'multiple interviews' because otherwise the subsequent sittings just won't happen. For a political journalist to agree to such terms amounts to a form of self-gelding. The only interviews that are done this way are lifestyle and celebrity interviews. And it's pretty clear that that is what this will be.

Here's some more to inspire confidence ...

    The interview is a coup for Gibson, who also had the only sit-down with McCain during the Republican National Convention. During that interview, he did not question McCain about Palin's family, a decision that he fretted about for hours, Gibson said in a Web log posted last week.

    "Once you know about her daughter's pregnancy, once you know about her husband's political interest in the Alaska Independent Party, once you know about the special nature of their latest child, I think that's enough," Gibson wrote.

    The relevant questions about Palin all related to her experience and policy positions as a mayor and governor of Alaska.

    ABC News spokesman Jeffrey Schneider said he did not believe Gibson's stated stance about family questions was key to securing the interview.

It will be unwatchable.

[headhuntersix]

Thanks for posting from a Lefty blogger....hey how about some attribution.

[Benny B]

WASHINGTON - Democrat Joe Biden says he's debated "an awful lot of tough, smart women" throughout his career and next month's vice presidential debate with Republican Sarah Palin will be no exception. But he'd like to know where she stands on issues.

"She's a smart, tough politician, so I think she's going to be very formidable," Biden told NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday.

The Democratic senator from Delaware and the Republican governor of Alaska are scheduled to debate Oct. 2 at Washington University in St. Louis.

Biden, serving his sixth term in Congress, said, "There's a lot of very tough, smart women in the United States Senate I debate every day." So, he said, "It's not new" to be going up against Palin. He also mentioned his wife, Jill, who has a Ph.D.

Asked whether he'd debate Palin differently than he would Republicans Mitt Romney or Tom Ridge, two former governors who figured into speculation about John McCain's running mate, Biden said the only difference is that he knows their positions on issues.

"I have no idea what her policies are. I assume they're the same as John's. I just don't know," he said of Palin.

Biden said she delivered a great speech to the Republican National Convention last week in St. Paul, Minn., but "her silence on the issues was deafening.

"She didn't mention a word about health care, a word about the environment, a word about the middle class. They never parted her lips ... so I don't know where she is on those things."

[Hugo Chavez]