The Drudge Report has a leaked excerpt from Chapter Four of Sarah Palin’s new book, Going Rogue: An American Life. In it, Palin describes being stifled by the McCain campaign’s “media blackout” and the pressure she says she received from McCain staffer Nicolle Wallace to sit down for an interview with Katie Couric.
From the beginning, Nicolle pushed for Katie Couric and the CBS Evening News. The campaign’s general strategy involved coming out with a network anchor, someone they felt had treated John well on the trail thus far. My suggestion was that we be consistent with that strategy and start talking to outlets like FOX and the Wall Street Journal. I really didn’t have a say in which press I was going to talk to, but for some reason Nicolle seemed compelled to get me on the Katie bandwagon.
Wallace was a political consultant at CBS News until 2008 when she left to work on the McCain campaign. Palin continues:
Nicolle went on to explain that Katie really needed a career boost. “She just has such low self-esteem,” Nicolle said. She added that Katie was going through a tough time. “She just feels she can’t trust anybody.”
I was thinking, And this has to do with John McCain’s campaign how?
Nicolle said. “She wants you to like her.”
Hearing all that, I almost started to feel sorry for her. Katie had tried to make a bold move from lively morning gal to serious anchor, but the new assignment wasn’t going very well.
“You know what? We’ll schedule a segment with her,” Nicolle said. “If it doesn’t go well, if there’s no chemistry, we won’t do any others.”
TVNewser reached out to the Couric camp for a response. There’s no comment at this time. Going Rogue goes on sale Tuesday.
Update: A spokesman for Couric tells TVNewser, “The interviews speak for themselves.”