So let me get this right; ABC's Gibson will give Palin the questions before

the interview, not ask her about her ties to the AIP (Alaskan Independence Party),
tape over two days, allow a McCain campaign worker to sit in off camera, and
skip certain areas that "they" don't want to discuss?

Sounds fair to me.


Some links ... I'll try to post some more later ... sorry not to have posted these before.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/214508.php

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.


http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5h21ZbzgPbTVRftcJPT5vkHkonY5QD93256F03

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.

n/t

Then the interview is worthless.

Hell 2 the No. I knew something was shady going on.

I'm aready getting RW email praising Caribou Barbie. I need to retaliate!

n/t

they might need a couple of days

N/T

But I do have a burger on the grill w/ home grown tomato &
basal garlic pasta

multiple interviews, what a crock

I really hope the Obama camp expose this, and demand equal time

is true, but this is first I've heard of having the question in advance or subjects not to be covered. Wouldn't surprise me. They are deathly afraid of any questions about her values, her family, her experience, her decisions and or actions as either mayor or governor, her religion and her church, and, I suspect, her general knowledge of history, government, current events or pretty much anything.

:grr:

Why doesn't she just sit in a chair, by herself, and read her
talking points?

To participate as an interviewer--if a fraud, because there is no interview.

This is a publicity stunt that gives no information to the American public.

Charlie Gibson, if he plays it this way, does a disservice to America--by helping
to cover up that a potential president of the United States, is incapable of
answering questions that she hasn't all ready rehearsed the answers to.

What a sham.

America wants to KNOW and they're are going to learn anything from those two.

Maybe they'll go elsewhere for the scoop.

Gibson is making even more of a joke of himself. I guess it pays well.

It sounds like a press release, or maybe a paid political advertisment.

Not that his journalistic creds were ever that strong... but this will
forever cement his reputation as a wobbly kowtowing flak

without such conditions do you? The media have to take what they can get.

1. Gov. Palin, is Barack Obama the most liberal person ever to run for president?

2. How bad do you think the economic fallout from Sen. Obama's catatstrophic plan to raise capital gains rates will be for working class hockey moms across America?

3. Does it bother you how unfair the media and the left wing bloggers have been to you so far?

4. How insulted were you at the unfair insinuation that you had not made any decisions in your role as commander in chief of the Alaska National Guard?

5. How important do you think Reverand Wright's un-Americanism was in Barack Obama's political development and how much do you hate Robert Ayres?

6. Do you believe women are intimidated by your enormous attractiveness?

7. How hard was it for you to single-handedly stop the "Bridge to Nowhere?"

8. How does it feel to have the most executive experience of any candidate in this race and how do you deal with the unfair attacks on that experience?

not like there are hundreds of legislative votes to renew or a college thesis to discuss or college lectures to parse...

Ah, Governor let's go over answer 12 again but skip the part about Alaska
seceding from the United States and that being Jesus' will.

I cannot believe these pretend news organizations are sitting on their hands, saying nothing about the lack of access and questioning to Palin, and will sit quietly while told by the campaign what she will and will not answer.

ABC is helping the McCain campaign produce a free piece of propaganda, designed to give the impression Palin can answer questions.

Questions in advance?! Are you fucking kidding me?!

So he can turn it down and actually have a real interview.

The known facts about the "interview" are bad enough, as Josh Marshall has convincingly argued, but we're all getting apoplectic about Palin "getting the questions in advance" and "having a handler present" -- nothing about these things in the links. The MSM loves to wave off legitimate grievances because they're mixed with claims that can't be backed up.

prior knowledge about the areas to be discussed.

Agree to these terms and then once the cameras are on, start asking the real questions.

I wonder how many days before the election they show an anti-Obama documentary like they did Kerry. If it weren't for Boston Legal, ABC would be a non-entity in my house.

that we couldn't ask questions of people that want to be elected to represent us.

commercial!

surprise!

:evilgrin:

:rofl:

Holy hell.

Why? I don't really know but they are aligned morally with Fox/

Edward R. Murrow he is not. But then most of them are whores who only care about their careers and not about true journalism, including Brokaw, Williams, and Couric.

...everyone knows Rove and Bush handlers will be writing her answers.

Honestly, she could just mail it in.

deference, deference, deference...