Speaking to Fox News yesterday (11th Oct 2012) Sarah Palin criticized the Associated Press for publishing a story that was deemed unflattering of the current Republican candidate, Mitt Romney.

Quoted on Politico.com Palin said, having been asked by Megyn Kelly about whether she considers it to be forgiveable or simply media bias, “Hell yeah, it's media bias. And it's also some sexism when you consider what the response to Mitt Romney's photo is — which is degrading and Associated Press, they’re jerks for having run that, even with the caption. I mean, absolute jerks and biased to try and taint some people’s view of Mitt Romney by running this photo. It’s embarrassing.”

Kathleen Carroll, the executive editor of the Associated Press, responded with an apology. It said: “The original caption on the photo of Gov. Romney taken Monday at a Virginia school was literally correct -- it said the governor was posing for photos with schoolchildren. But it was too generic and missed the boat by not explaining exactly what was happening. The student with the surprised expression had just realized that the governor was going to crouch down in front of her for the group photo. We amended the caption on Tuesday with that explanation, but by then many people had seen the photo and were confused by or angry about it. Those generic captions help us process a large number of photos on a busy campaign day, but some photos demand more explanation and we fell short of our own standards by not providing it in this case.”

Palin also referred to an unflattering photo of her in which her legs are shown in the foreground, with young men looking up at her which could be interpreted to look as though they're peering up her skirt. The heat continues to rise in this final and intense run up to the US elections that are to be held in November.