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Greta Van Susteren defends bus interview with Sarah Palin

Greta Van Susteren stepped aboard the Sarah Palin bus this morning as it continued to tour sites in and around Washington, DC. Van Susteren is not anchoring her show tonight, which means the interview may be held for tomorrow night.Van Susteren, who hosted Sarah and Todd Palin at the White House Correspondents dinner festivities earlier this month, is the only member of the national media to interview Palin since she announced the tour. And that’s drawn the ire of other members of the media covering Palin.

The NYTimes’ Michael D. Shear writes, “Ms. Palin, the former governor of Alaska, has made it quite clear that she just wants to be left alone. She doesn’t want to accommodate members of the news media (except, perhaps, Fox.)”

On her blog this morning, Van Susteren says there’s a good reason she got the interview, and others haven’t.

She works for Fox, and just as with any employee or someone on contract with another network, she is contractually obliged NOT to speak to others. For instance, when I was in Haiti, I could not interview CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta or when I want to talk politics, I can’t interview CNN’s Donna Brazile.

In fact, despite the bus tour, and a documentary biopic, Fox News has said they will not be changing Palin’s contract status any time soon.

> Update, Tuesday morning: The interview airs tonight on “On the Record.” A preview clip is after the jump.

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