Palin meets with Fox News execs, still under contract with network

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) met with executives from Fox News during her bus tour’s stop in New York, and she remains under contract as a contributor with the network.

“Right now there is no change in her status with Fox News,” said Bill Shine, the network’s vice president of programming.

{mosads}Palin’s status as a paid contributor with the network has been a subject of scrutiny,
especially since she launched a nationwide bus tour that has prompted
speculation that she could enter the GOP field.

Fox suspended the contracts of former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) and former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) after they took concrete steps toward running for president, such as working to form an exploratory committee. 

At the start of her tour, Shine issued a similarly worded statement, but did not include the “right now” qualifier. “We’re not changing her status,” he said last week.

Palin’s meeting was a short pit stop during her bus tour, which is
currently taking her and her family to various historic sites in the
Northeast (as well as the first-in-the-nation primary state of New
Hampshire).

Should she run, Palin said that her campaign would be unconventional, which could make it harder for observers (and Fox) to figure out if and when she is running.

“I’ve never really run for anything conventionally. … I’ve just jumped in there and done it when I’ve known it’s the right thing to do. So it’s going to be an unconventional run if I choose to do that,” she told Fox last month.