From Vogue to MTV, Palin drew press to Alaska

[October 13, 2008]  WASHINGTON (AP) -- GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin is keeping reporters at arms' length in her campaign, but she had a very different approach as Alaska's new governor: She couldn't get enough of them.

Palin cultivated interviews with local and national journalists and welcomed them from as far away as London, earning time in the spotlight even before Republican presidential candidate John McCain selected her as his running mate.

That contrasts with the restricted access the McCain team imposed after Palin joined the GOP ticket, and the tone of the campaign's current criticism of the media, which is feeding anger among her supporters. People at a Wisconsin rally last week glared at reporters, and one woman called them "a bunch of leftists." Another made an obscene gesture.

Yet in 20 months as governor before McCain tapped her, Palin scheduled more than 300 interviews and press conferences, according to an Associated Press review of her official daily calendar. Among them, local TV reporter Bill McAllister of KTUU interviewed her on numerous occasions before he went to work for her as press secretary in August.

Palin's appeal reached well beyond the home-state press corps.

Reporters from dailies and weeklies, fishing and fashion magazines, TV networks and radio shows came calling, including The New Yorker, People, Time, Newsweek, Fortune, Forbes, the British magazine Monocle, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, MTV, National Public Radio and a Palin biographer

.

Vogue and Alaska magazines celebrated the image of the frontier politician who stood up to the old boys' network. News organizations asked her about U.S. energy policy and the continuing legal saga involving the Exxon Valdez oil spill. Corruption scandals involving some of Alaska's old guard brought more interview requests, and so did Washington's decision to list the Arctic polar bear as a threatened species.

On television with interviewer Charlie Rose, Palin discussed energy security. On C-SPAN, sporting a polar bear pin, Palin talked about Alaska's budget surplus and why its capital is Juneau rather than Anchorage.

She discussed politics with MTV during the height of the primary battles last spring.

"Sooo, tell me your name," an MTV interviewer asked her off camera.

Working with Alaska seafood marketers, Palin scored an interview last October with O, The Oprah Magazine for a food story. The resulting June article, about "smart choices" to foster healthy seafood, did not mention Palin but dubbed Alaska's wild fisheries "healthy in every sense of the word."

Three months later, when McCain selected Palin to be his vice presidential candidate, Oprah Winfrey -- a prominent supporter of Barack Obama -- said she would only invite Palin or other candidates to appear on her TV talk show after the election.

McCain's campaign initially shielded Palin from reporters during her early speeches, then selectively granted a few interviews. Palin stumbled early when CBS anchor Katie Couric asked her about Supreme Court cases and what publications she read, and when she defended her foreign policy knowledge to ABC's Charlie Gibson by saying she could see Russia from Alaska.

Last week, she took questions from reporters on her campaign plane.

Palin operated differently in Alaska. She met with the editorial board of the Anchorage Daily News without any aides, uncharacteristic for high-level politicians.

People magazine interviewed Palin in June for a story focused on the birth of her son with Down syndrome. Writer Lorenzo Benet was surprised she had time for him and also for talk-show host Glenn Beck, while she cared for her infant, signed a bill, met with her energy team and prepared for a special session of the Legislature the next day.

Vogue writer Rebecca Johnson was similarly surprised Palin didn't hesitate to meet with a local TV crew that showed up unannounced during her interview, asking about her response to a political scandal.

Said Benet: "She definitely liked to talk."

[Associated Press; By RITA BEAMISH]

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