MSNBC retracts false Palin story

[Johannes_Paulsen]

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5j...DqNRAD94DQU5O0

MSNBC retracts false Palin story; others duped

By DAVID BAUDER – 8 hours ago


NEW YORK (AP) — 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."

[625]

Yea, we had a bunch of forum members that were duped by this bogus story. Wonder if any of them will admit that they only like to hear bad news about Palin, true or not.

[marinakorp]

Yea, we had a bunch of forum members that were duped by this bogus story. Wonder if any of them will admit that they only like to hear bad news about Palin, true or not.

Or any other political candidate for that matter.

[jud4420]

I retract my statement as it related to this story. But this story only falsely confirmed what many of us personally thought all along. Just because THIS story tuned out to not be true, does not change anything else.

I dont have a problem with her in regard to anything other than her being VP or worse yet (imo) president at this time. She seems to be doing a fine job as Governor of Alaska. And in a few years who knows?

It seems to many, she does have her eyes on the presidency in a few years. I'd imagine she is going to do whatever she can now to make sure her experience isnt so easily attacked later. If she does that, than good for her.

Just because some of us didnt support her now, does not mean we are incapable of supporting her in the future. Im sure most of us will make that decision when the time comes again.

[1861]

Yea, we had a bunch of forum members that were duped by this bogus story. Wonder if any of them will admit that they only like to hear bad news about Palin, true or not.

probably not !

[CarolinaGuy]

Yea, we had a bunch of forum members that were duped by this bogus story. Wonder if any of them will admit that they only like to hear bad news about Palin, true or not.

Perhaps you could link where a "bunch of members" were duped by "this story"?

Cuz the hoax is only about the source, and I can't seem to recall anyone getting duped about Martin Eisenstadt as a source for anything.

Maybe we should reread this quote.

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.

[625]

Perhaps you could link where a "bunch of members" were duped by "this story"?

Cuz the hoax is only about the source, and I can't seem to recall anyone getting duped about Martin Eisenstadt as a source for anything.

Maybe we should reread this quote.

While Palin has denied that she mistook Africa for a country

Sorry, I'll believe Palin before I believe the typical MSM "journalist".

[BanginBonnie2]

" Sorry, I'll believe Palin before I believe the typical MSM "journalist" !



I'll give that a Huge 'Ol .. " Amen " !