McCain campaign manager Rick Davis said Sunday that Palin would be made available "when we think it's time and when she feels comfortable doing it."
Later, a McCain-Palin adviser said Sunday that an interview was offered several days ago to Charles Gibson of ABC News. The adviser spoke on condition of anonymity because an official announcement had not been made.
The adviser said the interview was expected to take place later this week in Alaska. Palin is expected to return to her state at midweek after more joint appearances with McCain.
An ABC News spokeswoman said the network had no comment.
McCain, who appeared on CBS' "Face the Nation," said he expected Palin to start doing interviews "in the next few days."
Davis complained that the media has focused too much on the 44-year-old Palin's personal life. Many of those stories came after McCain's campaign announced that Palin's 17-year-old daughter was pregnant. News reports also have questioned her record as a reformer in Alaska.
"She's not scared to answer questions," Davis said on "Fox News Sunday." "But you know what? We run our campaign, not the news media. And we'll do things on our timetable."
Palin won over GOP loyalists with her speech last week at the Republican convention in St. Paul, Minn. But Democrats and even some Republicans have questioned whether she is ready to answer unscripted questions about national and international issues.
"Why would we want to throw Sarah Palin into a cycle of piranhas called the news media that have nothing better to ask questions about than her personal life and her children?" Davis said. "So until at which point in time we feel like the news media is going to treat her with some level of respect and deference, I think it would be foolhardy to put her out into that kind of environment."
Palin's Democratic counterpart, Sen. Joe Biden, a veteran of the Sunday talk show circuit, challenged Palin to sit for interviews.
"Eventually she's going to have to sit in front of you like I'm doing and have done," Biden said on "Meet the Press" on NBC. "Eventually she's going to have to answer questions and not be sequestered. Eventually she's going to have to answer questions about her record."
