Palin Offers First TV Interview To ABC

NEW YORK — Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin has agreed to sit down with ABC's Charles Gibson later this week for her first television interview since John McCain chose her as his running mate more than a week ago.

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

The interview with Palin was confirmed Friday, ABC News spokesman Jeffrey Schneider said.

The first-term Alaska governor has given speeches alongside McCain since becoming his surprise pick on Aug. 29. But Democrats have already begun to question why Palin has not been put before reporters to answer questions.

McCain, who appeared on CBS' "Face the Nation" Sunday, said he expected Palin to start doing interviews "in the next few days."

McCain campaign manager Rick Davis complained that the media has focused too much on 44-year-old Palin's personal life. Many of those stories came after McCain's campaign announced that Palin's unwed 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."

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.

Salter said the offer was made the day after the Republican convention and that there were no ground rules on what could be asked.

He also said Palin had not been sent out to campaign on her own because McCain enjoyed the excitement she was injecting into his campaign.

"They're having a good time. We were riding a lot of momentum coming out of the convention. The crowds were large," said Salter. "The senator himself thought they should continue on for a few days."

Palin won over GOP loyalists with her speech last week at the Republican convention in St. Paul, Minn., which drew more than 40 million television viewers. 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."

Gibson, in the Web log posted the day after Palin's speech, said he thought it was a very successful night for her.

"The difficult hurdles are to come, I think: The first interviews she'll face on issues; the first time she's closely questioned on positions she's taken in her state; and then, of course, the debate with Joe Biden," he wrote.

___

Associated Press writers Darlene Superville in Washington and Sara Kugler in Kansas City, Mo., contributed to this report.

Comments

[emor]

07:30 PM on 09/16/2008

I never missed a night without watching Charlie Gibson. After watching his interview with Sarah Palen I will never, never watch another interview or news show that he is conducting. I cannot believe how bias, the look of disgust and annoyance he had. He sure did not look like that when he was on his trip with Obama. This is not what I ever expected from him nor did all the people I was with when we were watching the program. He was such a disappointment. I guess Charles Gibson is no different than the rest of the media bias and trying to get the viewers to believe everything they want them to believe. The media has made a fool of themselves during these political times. Watching reruns of any show is better than listening to the garbage the media is throwing out.

[Phil123]

06:28 AM on 09/10/2008

Great headline, you sexist clowns. Now Palin is a "Girl?" Could you imagine the uproar if you referred to Obama as a "Boy?"

[hummingb]

04:21 PM on 09/09/2008

I hope Charlie Gibson wears his journalism hat to these interviews.So many women, especially Hillary have EARNED their reputations as women of substance. Ms. Palin, seems to feel it's an entitlement. She doesn't know anything about the economy, foreign affairs and many other issues women before have tken the time to study and learn. Put that hat on Charlie, YOU'RE going to need it
and we women of substance DEMAND answers!!

[BermudaGirl]

02:32 PM on 09/09/2008

Make a statement - DO NOT TUNE IN TO WATCH THIS INTERVIEW.
LET IS BE ONE OF THE LOW est RATED SHOWS OF THE EVENING
SHE IS A NON ENITITY. WHY LISTEN TO HER LIE.
TREAT HER AS SUCH.
AMERICAN'S ARE SO DUMB.
IT IS TRULY AMAZING.

[hummingb]

04:23 PM on 09/09/2008

I agree, it's spoon feed the candidate time. Turn the tube off!

[ndolomar]

01:59 PM on 09/09/2008

So, someone who can't even get the Fannie/Freddie Mac thing right now has an exclusive interview, over a period of days, and gets questions beforehand. This not only allows her advisers to give her the "right" answers, but it also forces another three or four days of Palin-exposure down the public's throat. Is this really the same group of politicians that complained of Obama's being overexposed? What are we going to do about it? I'm going to bombard ABCNews.com with endless e-mails about how I won't support their sponsors if they choose to be an extension of the McCain campaign -- just as I bombarded Olbermann with e-mails that he must ask as many "undesirable" questions of Obama as he would "softballs." We can't expect our media to be fair if we don't call them on it...repeatedly. If you don't like this setup, e-mail, call or write ABC; don't just post here.

Hypocrisy, thy name is and always will be the current Republican Party.

[ljmck]

01:48 PM on 09/09/2008

Palin-McCain chose Gibson, and Obama chose Olbermann. The difference, and it is substantial and telling, is that Obama also had the courage and conviction to chose O'Reilly.

[hummingb]

04:24 PM on 09/09/2008

I'll give McCain and Palin some credit when they sit down with Keith!

[khaleef49]

12:55 PM on 09/09/2008

There is a difference between an interview and reading script.

[crablover]

10:31 AM on 09/09/2008

She "agreed" to an interview?? What is she - a queen? She's still an elected public official as well as a candidate, and as such, should be open to any and all questions that impact this election.

I'm hoping Gibson will ask her tough questions. If not, I'm sure Jon Stewart has a few for her. Even McCain has been on The Daily Show several times.

[khaleef49]

12:56 PM on 09/09/2008

She already knows the questions, so that gives her handlers time to go over the answers. I would not call this an interview.

[Barbie40]

10:21 AM on 09/09/2008

Email abc news that CG should ask about:
community organizer joke about the Catholic Charity Barack worked for
Her and Her husband in the Alaska Independence Party
Cutting special education 65%

[ladydragon]

09:43 AM on 09/09/2008

I think they should ask her for her own thoughts about "community organizing" and why she thinks so little of people who work for grass roots orgainzations to see to the betterment of the community. Then I think they should say to her something I read on "Huffington Post" yesterday and that is: Jesus Christ was a "Community Organizer" Pontius Pilate was a "Governor" as for her thoughts on that.

[BarackDaVote]

08:36 AM on 09/09/2008

We all know Charlie is not a serious and credible journalist. He is going to ask her the safest questions: what does moose taste like, what are the winters like in Alaska, is being a mayor of a small town an easy task, do you feel Mccain will make a great president, how did you come up with the names for your kids, blah blah blah...

I really want Charlie to proove me wrong but we all know he isn't capable...

[demomntgirl]

09:22 AM on 09/09/2008

Charlie can not redeem himself~ and he won't try!!
He is a pundit...not a journalist....
where are the Tim Russerts of journalism...
when you need them?
Hiding under the desk...
afraid of the Republican pressure...
to don't ask questions...
just let us blather our talking points.
Or we will cancel appearances!
Well here is what I would do...if I was the the boss calling the shots.
I would put Obma people...Biden people...democrats all over my station...
and constantly say..WE ASKED MCCAIN AND THE REPUBLICANS TO COME ON..BUT THEY REFUSED TO ANSWER OUR QUESTIONS!! THERE IS AN OPEN INVITATION FOR THEM TO COME ON WITHOUT PRECONDITIONS.
There is not one media outlet that has the backbone to do it.
But as a soccer mom...that is WHAT I would DO. Don't tell me what I'm going to, don't threaten me, don't think you will push me in a corner with your threats. And unti the time they would be open with the press and THE AMERICAN PEOPLE...I WOULD GIVE OBAMA AND BIDEN UNLIMITED COVERAGE WITH QUESTION AND ANSWER SHOWS! The REPUBLICANS WOULD CRY BIAS, and I would point out there is an open invitation...come on...but you get the same treatment as ANY candidate, for the AMERICAN PEOPLE to GET INORMATION THEY NEED TO VOTE!!
The McCAIN CAMP BUSH TACTICS would end.
Is there any media man with the balls of a soccer mom????

[gez]

06:39 AM on 09/09/2008

Correction: the word be on line five should read beat

[gez]

06:35 AM on 09/09/2008

Once she has finished her interview at ABC, she'll probably go running into the adoring arms of Fox news. Probably 'Fox and Friends', the most adoring of them all. They of course will remind viewers how talented she is because she plays the flute. They of course will give her all sorts of advice on how to be Obama and remind us all about the nasty mainstream media. Newt Gingrigh will once again remind everyone how talented she is because she ah um .. plays the flute!

[indeevoter]

05:52 AM on 09/09/2008

Well, of course he did. Campaigns don't make these decisions on a whim - they make them based solely on their own best interests - and obviously they decided Charlie would be more likely to give Palin a "Good Morning America" style interview than a "Meet the Press" interview. Long on "small" things - short on substance - nada on meaningful follow-up. The kind of interview that would - when Gibson was doing ABC's morning show - fit comfortably between a cooking segment and a segment on ways for couples to avoid going to bed angry.

[THE JEDI 69]

05:36 AM on 09/09/2008

Hey Charlie...why don't ya ask her about Capital Gains tax..for 45 minutes.
Gibson is a fracking Joke and this interview is just one more way to try and stick it to Obama
so he's gonna ask her some softball questions. Well I got one softball question for ya.
If you more Qualified than Obama..when you became Mayor of Wasilla, it had a Budget
surplus, just like the U.S. had when Bush took office..why does a person making $250,000 dollars a year which translates to $20,833 dollars a month..need with a tax break..explain that to the familys or the single mothers and fathers I might add who live off of $30,000 a year which is about $2500..a month.