Why won't Sarah Palin talk to the press?

John McCain's chief honcho in New York, Representative Peter King, compared her to some of the immortals of rock 'n roll.

"She's become like the Beatles or U2," King said. "She's got a certain celebrity status now – people want to see her; they want to hear her."

Attica! Attica!

The press feels the same way.  They don't have idolization thing going but they want access.  And it showed this afternoon around the series of tubes.

Andrew Sullivan is creative in his criticism calling the McCain campaign's handling of Palin "sexist" citing a different set of rules are applied for media access to Palin and "devising less onerous debate rules for a female candidate." His advice to the beleagured press pool?  Revolt!

"Fight back, you hacks! Demand access," Sullivan writes.  "Demand accountability! It's our duty. If we cannot ask questions of a total newbie six weeks before an election in which she could become president of the country, then the First Amendment is pointless."

Scott Conroy over at CBS grouses that this is not the first example of poor communication skills on behalf of the McCain campaign.

In Orlando on Sunday, Palin had another off-the-record stop at an ice cream shop, but the pool producer who was assigned to be in Palin’s motorcade was not notified when the candidate departed to get ice cream, and so there was no editorial presence at the event.

ABC's Kate Snow reports frustration:

Palin has not held a news conference since being selected as McCain's running-mate, nor taken questions from her traveling press corps, frustrating journalists assigned to cover Palin for the election.

Kenneth Vogel at Politico says things are getting testy:

Sarah Palin’s relationship with her traveling press corps went from barely existing to downright chilly Tuesday, when the two sides briefly engaged in a standoff over journalists’ access to Palin’s photo ops on the sidelines of the United Nations meetings here.

Mark Silva over at The Swamp says the campaign is trying to avoid a repeat of an incident last week.

The McCain/Palin campaign's effort to stifle editorial coverage of the candidate's meetings with world leaders comes a week after CBS News asked Palin an impromptu question about the AIG bailout, while Palin made an off-the-record stop at a Cleveland diner.

"After the Cleveland event, a Palin staffer told CBS News that questions "weren't allowed."

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