Sarah Palin's U.N. meetings begin with media flap

Plans by John McCain's presidential campaign to showcase running mate Sarah Palin's meetings with world leaders at the United Nations today got off to a rocky start.Reporters' access to Palin, who has yet to hold a news conference, has been limited by the campaign. But the protective blanket around the Alaska governor drew even tighter during a visit to New York to meet with foreign leaders and policy experts.

The campaign told print and wire service reporters that they would not have a representative in the pool of reporters accompanying Palin to her meetings with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe and former Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger, a foreign policy advisor to McCain.

The pool of reporters, which was to include a television crew, was supposed to be in the room for a few moments -- just to capture the opening of Palin's meetings. But when the campaign announced that even the pool television producer -- who is charged with capturing editorial content for the five networks -- would not be permitted in the room, the networks threatened to pull their cameras from Palin's events today.

Eventually, the campaign relented and allowed a CNN producer into the room for the meetings. But there were no wire service reporters or print reporters present for the first meeting, with Karzai.

According to the pool report from the CNN producer allowed into Karzai's hotel suite, Palin was seated a few feet from Karzai; seated slightly behind her were foreign policy advisors Steve Biegun and Randy Scheunemann, who are accompanying the governor today.

The president and Palin talked about his son.

Campaign aides later said that wire service reporters would be allowed to accompany photographers into the sessions with Uribe and Kissinger. Campaign spokeswoman Tracey Schmitt said the earlier announcements were a "mix-up, a miscommunication among staff."

Palin met later with Uribe and they posed briefly for the cameras and exchanged small talk, according to the pool report.

The world leaders are in New York for the opening of the United Nations General Assembly this week.

Since she was nominated on Aug. 29, Palin has been criticized for avoiding questions from reporters. She had made a brief statement to a pool of reporters about her background and experience during the Republican convention on Sept. 4 after she attended a lunch held by the Republican Governors Assn. at a museum in Minneapolis. During a visit to a Cleveland diner on Sept. 17, she answered one question about the bailout of insurance giant American International Group Inc.

She has done interviews with ABC's Charles Gibson and Fox News Channel's Sean Hannity. She and McCain also did a joint interview with People magazine on the day she was selected as his running mate. She is expected to sit down this week with CBS News anchor Katie Couric.

On Wednesday, she is scheduled to meet with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and Pakistan's new president, Asif Ali Zardari, and join McCain for a morning meeting with Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili and the president of Ukraine, Viktor Yushchenko. Governor Palin is also scheduled to meet with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Later that day, McCain and Palin will meet with U2's Bono, who has been active in AIDS issues and African aid affairs.

maeve.reston@latimes.com