Cone of Silence update: Couric to interview Palin

posted at 1:05 pm on September 16, 2008 by Ed Morrissey
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Sarah Palin continues her introduction to both the American people and the media by agreeing to another broadcast network interview, this time with another female pioneer.  Katie Couric will sit down with both Palin and John McCain in prime-time interviews that will run on the entire platform of CBS News programs, much as ABC handled its exclusive with Palin last week:

Breaking: TVNewser has learned Katie Couric will interview Republican VP nominee Gov. Sarah Palin next week on the campaign trail, days before the first presidential debate.

This is a good move by the McCain/Palin team.  It shows a lack of fear in putting Palin on the hot seat after her decent but not blockbuster performance with ABC.  She appeared on Sean Hannity’s show last night [see update below], but that doesn’t count as a potentially adversarial news interview; Hannity supports the McCain/Palin ticket, obviously and explicitly, and friendly-turf chats don’t count when arguing against the supposed “cone of silence” that McCain allegedly dropped on Palin.

How will Couric handle the interview?  She could start by reviewing what didn’t work with Gibson, including the condescending, professorial tone he took with Palin.   Couric also needs to do better research on Palin’s statements and positions, and avoid “pop quizzes” and focus on Palin’s own positions on foreign policy.

Palin did well enough with Gibson, but she needs to do some work as well for this appearance.  Palin needs to understand how important this interview will be to Couric and CBS, where their news broadcast regularly runs last in the standings.   Couric will want to come across as a heavyweight and not a soft, Today-show interviewer, so Palin has to avoid underestimating Couric.  She’s had her first major interview, and she won’t get any slack for being a rookie.  Palin has to be herself and not let Couric rattle her.

Eventually, Palin will have to do an interview with NBC, either with Tom Brokaw or Brian Williams, and probably Wolf Blitzer at CNN.   These interviews will have more impact than the VP debate in terms of impact on the ticket, and gives the McCain/Palin ticket a great opportunity to extend the Palin phenomenon in the race.  With opportunity comes risk, but after handling her ABC interview as well as she did, the risks have dropped considerably.

Update: The Hannity interview got delayed until later this week; it had originally been scheduled for last night.

Also, the reason that these interviews will have a bigger impact than the debate is that Biden will probably be more careful to avoid condescension and antagonism.  The debate will probably not get as many viewers as the combined audiences of all these interviews, either, although it will certainly attract more than the Cheney-Edwards debate in 2004.

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