MSNBC retracts false Palin story; others duped

AP via SFGate ^ | 11/12/8 | DAVID BAUDER, AP Television Writer

[SmithL]

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.

[SmithL]

Fake, but accurate?

It doesn't matter, they've got an agenda.

[ken21]

how many democrat tv viewers will be repeating this story for decades?

[potlatch]

Interesting ping.

[pissant]

I thought I heard Rachel Madcow using the talking points the other night.

[GOP Poet]

how does one explain the Carl Cameron jabs. Didn’t he ‘pal around with the McCain campaign and know his sources? This is all a bunch of horse hooey!

[redk]

Carl Cameron is this elections Dan Rather. He especially owes the Gov an apology. And BOR can suck it too.

[El Cid]

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.

Oh yeah - I bet this guy is still waiting for his million dollar pay-offs from his Nigerian buddies...
Thank goodness for the integrity of our MSM watchdogs. Don't know what we would do without them (-cough-)...

[Enchante]

"someone in the network's newsroom had presumed the information solid because it was passed along in an e-mail from a colleague"

Well, sure, that's reasonable, "an email from a colleague" is all that's needed as "research" and corroboration. /sarcasm

Hell, that's almost as good as "we pulled it out of Dan Rather's a-- but don't want to admit to that!"

Gee, to think that the Mediascum love to sneer at the Pajama brigades, but here we have PMSNBC admitting that they aired a "story" simply because one hack emailed it to another hack. Wow, what rigorous "gate-keepers" you are there at PMSNBC.

[Chairman of the Bard]

Watch for Keith Overbite to come out and tell us that the source of the story was actually Keyser Söze

[RckyRaCoCo]

it had it's desired effect....that's all that matters

(keep your friends close and your enemies closer)

[RJL]

LOL... Another example of the numerous layers of editors and fact checkers that the Internet and bloggers just don't have.

[healy61]

I find Carl Cameron to have a career destroying lisp that is likely a hint at a private and socially unacceptable habit. What it is, I couldn’t fathom, but I won’t invite him to be around the kids.

[Diogenesis]

This hoax, covered already, sounds like an attempt
by the Romney operatives to create something far from themselves.

"Almost every critical remark made about Palin
on a recent briefing call about her selection came from political consultants
with ties to Romney. Those comments were planted, says one,
because they knew that reporters would be on the call."
[Washington Prowler, American Spectator, Storm Center, 9/2/2008]

This reminds Conservatives of Romney's fake badges and attacks on Sen Thompson.

Novak: Fred Thompson drop-out rumors traced to Romney campaign

Said Novak: The rumors were "traced in part to Mitt Romney's campaign,
trying to stir up strife between McCain and Thompson."

[April Lexington]

Just two of the 78% of secular American Jews who voted for Obama. I guess we didn't pander hard enough!

[bigbob]

sheesh, how many people HERE on FR still think he’s real?

“Free Martin Eisenstadt!”

[4Godsoloved..Hegave]

"The story was not properly vetted and should not have made air," said Jeremy Gaines, network spokesman.

So was the "President elect" not vetted properly and can you issue an apology for That One and then we can go on with life as usual after he gets omitted from any further political jobs in his life?

[Moconservative]

I listened to Greta earlier talk to O’Reilly and she said that Carl Cameron had called her and said he was sorry he had reported the story. I don’t know if that will make it to Governor Palin but at least there is an admission herer that he didn’t do his homework.

[HANG THE EXPENSE]

OUCH!

[redk]

He needs to go on tv admit he was wrong. Telling Greta isn’t enough after the way he reported the whole thing.

[fatima]

Nobody.