Palin hits the airwaves

If you've stopped watching the news since the election, you've missed a lot of talk from Gov. Sarah Palin.

The McCain campaign kept Palin relatively shielded from the media during the runup to the election. But as the post-election dust settles, Palin has been on a media blitz. In just the past few days, she's granted a series of high-profile interviews -- Matt Lauer on the "Today Show," Wolf Blitzer and Larry King on CNN and Greta Van Susteren on Fox News -- and she's given us plenty to talk about.

Much of the fodder has centered on the intense media scrutiny Palin received during the campaign -- in particular, her interview with Katie Couric, which fueled criticism that Palin lacked sufficient experience to be vice president.

The moment from the Couric interview that rocketed around the world was, of course, the exchange in which Couric pressed Palin about the newspapers she reads. Palin was unable to name any specific papers.

Sitting down with Matt Lauer back home in Alaska earlier this week, Palin made it clear that she didn't appreciate the question:

"...You know questions about well, you know, 'what do you read up there in Alaska?' To me that was kind, a little bit annoying because I'm like, you know, 'what do you mean what do I read up in Alaska? I read the same things that you guys read in New York and there in L.A. and in Washington state. What do you mean, what do I read up there?'"

Palin expanded on the incident on "Larry King Live," responding to his question about whether she should have done the Couric interview in the first place:

"There was nothing off-base, unfair about [the Couric interview]. Certainly, I should have done the interview. To attribute that interview to any kind of negativity in the campaign or a downfall in the campaign, I think it's ridiculous.

"I would have greater respect, though, for the entire profession called mainstream media if we could have great assurance that there's fairness, that there's objectivity throughout the reporting world..."

CNN has all the interview highlights here.

Talking to reporters in Alaska, Palin again took the media to task. Reports were swirling about anonymous campaign aides' claims that during debate preparations, Palin didn't know Africa was a continent, or which countries comprised NAFTA. Palin lashed out against the media for reporting the story:

"Those guys are jerks, if they came away with it taking things out of context and then tried to spread something on national news. It is not fair and not right."

Turns out, Palin is right on that score. As the New York Times reports, the whole story was part of an elaborate hoax, and the networks that reported the misinformation have retracted it.

Palin's political future

What to make of all the speculation of Palin running for president in 2012? She's been addressing that, too -- but not very definitively.

Palin hinted that she'd consider a run in 2012 in her interview with Fox's Greta Van Susteren.

"...If there is an open door in '12 or four years later, and if it is something that is going to be good for my family, for my state, for my nation, an opportunity for me, then I'll plow through that door."

Fair enough. But wait -- not so fast, Palin said at the Republican Governor's Association gathering today: