MSNBC Retracts False Palin Story; Others Duped

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

NEW YORK -- MSNBC was the victim of a hoax when it reported that an adviser to John McCain had identified himself as the source of an embarrassing story about former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, the network said Wednesday.

David Shuster, an anchor for the cable news network, said on air Monday that Martin Eisenstadt, a McCain policy adviser, had come forth and identified himself as the source of a FOX News Channel story saying Palin had mistakenly believed Africa was a country instead of a continent.

Eisenstadt identifies himself on a blog as a senior fellow at the Harding Institute for Freedom and Democracy. Yet neither he nor the institute exist; each is part of a hoax dreamed up by a filmmaker named Eitan Gorlin and his partner, Dan Mirvish, the New York Times reported Wednesday.

The Eisenstadt claim had mistakenly been delivered to Shuster by a producer and was used in a political discussion Monday afternoon, MSNBC said.

"The story was not properly vetted and should not have made air," said Jeremy Gaines, network spokesman. "We recognized the error almost immediately and ran a correction on air within minutes."

Gaines told the Times that someone in the network's newsroom had presumed the information solid because it was passed along in an e-mail from a colleague.

The hoax was limited to the identity of the source in the story about Palin -- not the FOX News story itself. While Palin has denied that she mistook Africa for a country, the veracity of that report was not put in question by the revelation that Eisenstadt is a phony.

Eisenstadt's "work" had been quoted and debunked before. The Huffington Post said it had cited Eisenstadt in July on a story regarding the Hilton family and McCain.

Among the other victims were political blogs for the Los Angeles Times and The New Republic, each of which referenced false material from Eisenstadt's blog.

And in July, Jonathan Stein of Mother Jones magazine blogged an item about Eisenstadt speaking on Iraqi television about a casino in Baghdad's "Green Zone."

Stein later realized he'd been had.

"Kudos to the inventor of this whole thing," Stein wrote. "My only consolation is that if I had as much time on my hands as he clearly does, I probably would have figured this out and saved myself a fair amount of embarrassment."

http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/11/13/ms...in-story-duped/

[Teacher Mark 53]

At least they retracted the story. Fox never admits it when they are wrong.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

And yet, Sarah Palin is still a moron.

[Sofiyya 1,687]

Sarah Palin wasn't and isn't a moron. Her popularity was a threat to Obama's victory, so it was and imperative for the media to make her appear to be much less competant and intellectual than she is. It's just one of the many myths that one had to fall for to believe Obama is the Savior of the Nation. As more myths are debunked, that will become obvious.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Sarah proves you wrong, VW - she is indeed an airhead. And she's on track to damage the GOP more than Bush did. Go Sarah!

[Sofiyya 1,687]

Sarah isn't running for anything now, but it is still necessary for Obama sycophants to try to convince everyone that she is a dope. There's a reason for that, and it's not because she is.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Sarah isn't running for anything now, but it is still necessary for Obama sycophants to try to convince everyone that she is a dope. There's a reason for that, and it's not because she is.

Keep telling yourself that. If it helps.

[Danno 1,228]

IT's clear to anyone who watches her "perform" on stage (as all politicians do) that she took Obama apart more effectively than any other person.

Your Damn right the Left about swallowed their tongues and have expended energy on every front to destroy her.

There will be no let up of this, you can see even by the Left-wing posters here at VJ the

URGENCY they have to repeat over and over again the talking points.

Will Palin materialize into the future threat they fear?

Who knows but Jeez, I will enjoy watching them sweat it out.

If Palin is smart she will assume that Senators seat and get into the US Public eye more.

If she is the dunce as the Left hopes and believes she is.... she will unravel, if not, the left's worst nightmares may come true.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Hey, seems MSNBC had it right all along.

Palin Hoping to be Named Ambassador to Africa

‘A Darned Important Country,’ Says Guv

Sarah Palin of Alaska has reached out to President-elect Obama's transition team to indicate her interest in being named "ambassador to the nation of Africa," the governor confirmed today.

Gov. Palin said that although she had planned to continue in her position in Juneau, she was willing to leave the governorship "because Africa is just such a darned important country."

"I have always been very, very interested in the nation of Africa, partly because of it being located where it is," she said. "If you are standing in Africa and you look real close, you can see South Africa."

She added that she had received phone calls encouraging her to vie for the post, including one from French president Nicholas Sarkozy.

In other news from the Palin family, Bristol Palin's fiancé Levi Johnston said he was "totally stoked" about Tuesday night's election returns, calling the results "definitely a game-changer for me."

"The election of Barack Obama means different things to different people," he said. "To me, it means freedom, dude!"

[IAMX 3,055]

Hey, seems MSNBC had it right all along.

Palin Hoping to be Named Ambassador to Africa

‘A Darned Important Country,’ Says Guv

Sarah Palin of Alaska has reached out to President-elect Obama's transition team to indicate her interest in being named "ambassador to the nation of Africa," the governor confirmed today.

Gov. Palin said that although she had planned to continue in her position in Juneau, she was willing to leave the governorship "because Africa is just such a darned important country."

She's got my vote! Go make America even more proud of you, Sarah.

Edited November 16, 2008 by SRVT

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

If Palin is smart she will assume that Senators seat and get into the US Public eye more.

You need to keep up on the news, my friend. Seems that that Senate seat won't go to Stevens but to his Democrat challenger.

Stevens Falls Further Back in Alaska Senate Count

Sen. Stevens falls further back in Alaska vote count; faces uphill re-election fight

Republican Sen. Ted Stevens, a stalwart of Alaska politics who was convicted of felony charges last month, fell further behind his Democratic rival Friday, and most remaining ballots come from parts of the state that have favored the challenger.

Mark Begich, the two-term mayor of Anchorage, increased his lead from 814 votes to 1,022 as state election workers counted 17,100 ballots. Begich had 47.4 percent of the vote to Stevens' 47.0 percent.

"With the gap widening slightly in our favor today, I feel even more optimistic that when all the ballots are counted next week, we'll see Alaskans came out to vote for new leadership in Washington, D.C.," Begich said in a statement.

The 25,000 remaining votes will be counted Tuesday. They come mostly from Anchorage and the surrounding area, where Begich is leading, and from the state's southeastern panhandle, where he was doing even better.

[Niels Bohr 72]

Palin is an intellectual.....good one.

[alienlovechild 75]

Sarah isn't running for anything now, but it is still necessary for Obama sycophants to try to convince everyone that she is a dope. There's a reason for that, and it's not because she is.

Obama is supposed to be so great and an historical figure but he's proving to a little man who barely gets more airtime than a defeated newcomer VP from a sparsely populated state who needs to get trashed with phony stories so Obama can look like a big man by comparison.

[Sofiyya 1,687]

Sarah isn't running for anything now, but it is still necessary for Obama sycophants to try to convince everyone that she is a dope. There's a reason for that, and it's not because she is.

Keep telling yourself that. If it helps.

Keep tellling yourself that she's a moron. It must comfort you.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Sarah isn't running for anything now, but it is still necessary for Obama sycophants to try to convince everyone that she is a dope. There's a reason for that, and it's not because she is.

Keep telling yourself that. If it helps.

Keep tellling yourself that she's a moron. It must comfort you.

I could care less. But if Palin is the sharpest tool in the box that is the GOP, then the GOP is in some serious trouble.