ABC, Palin and the 'Odor of Compromise': Coll

The New Yorker's Steve Coll on how ABC fumbled a chance to burnish its journalistic credentials with Charles Gibson's Sarah Palin interview:

There is no shame in winning an exclusive interview with a reclusive subject, of course, and David Westin is hardly responsible for the McCain campaign's cynical handling of its Eliza Doolittle problem, but if he had managed his network's "get" more responsibly he might have expelled its odor of compromise. The occasion of the Alaska governor's debut before the national media called for a lightly edited, extended one-on-one, aired on a single night, so that American voters might assess the candidate's answers and demeanor in full. Instead, apparently to maximize ratings and branding opportunities, ABC doled out Palin sound bites on six network broadcasts over two days, as well as in supplemental ABC Radio and Web releases. In the end, Westin exploited the Governor's moose-hunting, baby-juggling appeal as if she were a magnetic contestant on one of the network's prime-time reality shows -- Extreme Makeover: White House Edition.