Palin vs. the Press: She Blinks!

"You can't blink," Sarah Palin told Charles Gibson earlier this month, describing her resolute nature. In a showdown with her media pool today in New York, however, Palin—or at least her press handlers—did.

Before Palin met with her first foreign head of state (always such a special moment), her staffers laid down some conditions: cameras and photographers would be allowed in; producers and writers—who might smuggle an unvetted question past security—would not.

Palin: pictures, but no producers. The press responded: no producers, no pictures, threatening to take their cameras and go if denied full access. Who needed whom more? For today, at least, the press pool won out, as pool reporters were later okayed.