
Time conducts Sarah Palin "interview" over e-mail
The newsweekly has her on the cover, but has no way of knowing whether she actually answered their questions
Alex Pareene
http://www.salon.com/news/politics/sarah_palin/index.html?story=/politics/war_room/2010/12/10/palin_time_emailIt's not until the eight paragraph -- and the second Internet "page" -- of the Time magazine cover story on Sarah Palin's tactics and ambition that this sentence appears:
"I would run because the country is more important than my ease, though I'm not necessarily living a life of ease," says Palin, who answered questions from TIME via e-mail.
Exclusive! Palin sits down with Time for an interview! An e-mail interview, I mean. Which is generally how you get a quick statement, not how you put together a cover story. (Even when you're writing about a real celebrity, from movies and stuff, you are generally expected to, at the very least, hear their voice at the other end of a phone.)
And it raises some questions! Like, how did Time know this wasn't Rebecca Mansour answering questions? Or Todd? Did Palin's handlers rule out conducting the whole thing in GChat? (Palin's not still using that Yahoo! e-mail address, right?)
A GChat interview might've been more interesting. An e-mail interview easily allows the subject to avoid getting tripped up by tough questions and completely ignore unwelcome follow-ups. Palin's media strategy is all about limiting exposure and making sure every appearance is on her own terms and in her comfort zone. That strategy requires a press so desperate for the attention Palin content generates that they bend over backward for her -- and it looks like it's all working perfectly, so far.