ABC's Charlie Gibson to Interview Palin: Will He Go Easy, Like on Obama?

Washington Post media reporter Howard Kurtz reported Monday morning that "hours after campaign manager Rick Davis told Fox News Sunday that Palin will not be exposed to the media's ‘circle of piranhas,’ ABC confirmed Sunday that Palin will sit down this week with anchor Charlie Gibson." He has been anything but piranha-like with Barack Obama (see here or here), so the possibility of a seriously biased contrast is there if Palin gets a Russert roasting, and is not swooned over Obama-style as a symbolic test of American progress.

Kurtz summarized the early Palin coverage with spice: "From the moment Sarah Palin stepped onto the national stage, she was mauled, minimized and manhandled by an openly skeptical media establishment." He proclaimed that all changed after her boffo speech last Wednesday night: 

But after Palin's charismatic speech wowed the country, some of the same journalists began praising the Arizona senator's choice, which Newsweek's Howard Fineman described as one of "accidental brilliance." Perhaps the initial rush to judgment, based on little knowledge of the governor, was less than brilliant.

Kurtz also noted the mainstrem media outlets ignored a "thinly sourced" National Enquirer report alleging Palin had an affair until the McCain campaign denounced it as a vicious lie. But it sounds like they're doing more on the Palin adultery allegations than they did for John Edwards:

And if you think the mainstream press is ignoring the Enquirer allegations, guess again. Politico reports that numerous national journalists have gone to an Alaskan courthouse to examine the divorce file of a Palin friend -- the subject of the rumors -- after he tried to have the papers sealed. The man's ex-wife, by the way, denied to Us Weekly that any affair took place.