I told you so. Actually, I told you twice.
And now, even the Paper of Record is admitting that it’s a load of crap.
It was among the juicier post-election recriminations: Fox News Channel quoted an unnamed McCain campaign figure as saying that Sarah Palin did not know that Africa was a continent.
Who would say such a thing? On Monday the answer popped up on a blog and popped out of the mouth of David Shuster, an MSNBC anchor. “Turns out it was Martin Eisenstadt, a McCain policy adviser, who has come forward today to identify himself as the source of the leaks,†Mr. Shuster said.
Trouble is, Martin Eisenstadt doesn’t exist. His blog does, but it’s a put-on. The think tank where he is a senior fellow — the Harding Institute for Freedom and Democracy — is just a Web site. The TV clips of him on YouTube are fakes.
And the claim of credit for the Africa anecdote is just the latest ruse by Eisenstadt, who turns out to be a very elaborate hoax that has been going on for months. MSNBC, which quickly corrected the mistake, has plenty of company in being taken in by an Eisenstadt hoax, including The New Republic and The Los Angeles Times.
Those of you who believed it: You think you were in good company? No excuse. Not if you read this blog. I have a pretty fine-tuned bullshit detector. I have been taken in by exactly two hoaxes since I started blogging. And I only wrote about one of them (the naked paintball hoax). Next rumor that comes along, you just might want to wait before hopping on the bandwagon. Especially one as obviously fake as this one.
Or maybe you should just believe me when I tell you you’re falling for pure bullshit. As for Fox News and MSNBC: They should be ashamed. But you know they won’t be.
I have a pretty fine-tuned bullshit detector.
I heard that she wants to go gefilte fishing with Abe Foxman. No really, she wants to hunt the king of all fish, the mighty gefilte.
I hear the gefiltes aren’t running well this year. Palin is known to have been a good student and in her youth a voracious reader so it was very unlikely that she didn’t know what Africa is.
But the story got traction because the left has a strong need to see its enemies not as merely misguided or wrong, but as evil or stupid.
It’s why I have come around to the position of one of the guys who do “South Park:” “I hate conservatives but I f.ing hate liberals.”
“Harding” Institute? Now that I think about it, the name itself is a tip-off. Are there any legitimate think tanks or institutions named after the president who is generally considered to have had the most corrupt and incompetent admninistration in US history so far?
I like Palin fine, but why is shooting a Caribou such an acheivement? Don’t they just kind of stand around out in the open in large groups?
john m
No
John, you’re thinking of the Elks, and I hear that’s only on Friday or Saturday nights.
;-)
What a good thing that the MSM has all those fact checkers and editors that blogs don’t have, so that they won’t be taken in by transparent hoaxes. Oh wait…
Thye’ll probably tell us that even if the story isn’t true, it reflects a deeper truth. Fake but accurate, as they say at CBS.
“Harding†Institute?
Yes the Tonya Harding Institute of fairness and equality in sports.
Um, sorry to spoil your party, but Sarah Palin herself pretty much acknowledged that it was true. The only things she complained about were that the leaks to Fox from the McCain campaign insiders were “cruel” and that her comments were “taken out of context”.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/08/us/politics/08palin.html
I think by now we’ve seen enough context to know what her foreign affairs expertise consists of.
Bullshit, Hal. She is not saying she said those things. She says she’s been misquoted by things taken out of context. Sort of like this:
By all means, keep on ignoring the facts and insisting that Palin is a moron, though. It really says a lot more about you than it does about her.
Chris Matthews called Africa a country when he was talking about this very issue. Think he’s so stupid he doesn’t know the difference, either? Or maybe he just misspoke. Duh.
/me kicking myself for missing naked paintball hoax.
Being a far-left liberal, Volvo-driving, New York Times-reading, troop-hating, socialist, I naturally did not like Palin.
However, I must admit that I fully expected that this story is bullshit.
She may be incurious, much like W., but she’s not stupid. I have no doubt she knew full well that Africa is a continent and not a country.
Robert, you know better than to post a comment like that.
Deleted.
Dear me, for all you Palin despising types who want to think she’s a moron, we have now have a President-elect who, despite an elite education at Columbia U. and Harvard Law, is more ignorant of economics and the effect of tax policies than a blue-collar plumber.
Palin has accomplished more in less than two years as governor of Alaska than Obama has in his entire political career, including his time as a “Community Organizer”. She challengd her own party to fight corruption on the Oil and Gas Consevation Commission, and succeeded. Do you people really believe that someone who can do that is stupid?
But Obama speaks sooooo beautifully, at any rate when he uses a teleprompter. What more do you want, accomplishments? That’s RACISM!!!!
“We spent a lot of time talking about Africa, as we should. Africa is a nation that suffers from incredible disease.”
— George W. Bush
http://normdoering.blogspot.com/2008/11/yet-more-evidence-that-right-wing.html
I am not a fan of Palin, but a center left/right American who knows we can do better than Palin. Still, this smear didn’t sound true to me when I heard it. I don’t think Palin is sophisticated or internationally savvy, but stupid? No chance. She could not have gotten where she is being stupid.
To address Michael Lonnie
(oops… that submit comment button is too close to the box )
To address Michael Lonnie:
Would you care to support that outlandish claim with some facts? Short answer: “No you can’t.” Why? Because it’s not true. Many, many smart people disagree with you including two former Treasury Secretaries (O’Neil, Rubin), Chairman of the Fed under Reagan (Volker), Former Labor Secretary (Reisch), 71 Nobel Laureats, and, I’m sure, many others far smarter than you. Unsupported claims are no substitute for facts, Michael – even when you call those of us who have bothered to do independent research “ignorant.” Please don’t try to portray Joe the blue collar plumber as some economic genius. #1 – he’s been opposed to any taxes for a long time, and is behind in his own tax bill. #2 – He does not own a business, he “hopes” to own one, which, from what I’ve seen, is unlikely, #3 – He will benefit on his taxes now that Obama was elected (and that IS a fact). Joe was a head fake by McCain to distract from a simple fact: Obama’s tax policy would have returned more money to middle class people like Joe than would McCain’s. Now I could easily argue that tax cuts applied long term make a bad deficit situation ($10.7T and growing) even worse, but in the short term, they will help those who need it most right now. The McCain tax cut would have delivered a $1100 per year tax break to a family of 4 making $2,000,000 annually. In what universe does that make sense?
The non-partisan Tax Foundation supports my claims: http://www.taxfoundation.org.
Don J, didn’t you know that non-partisan organizations have a liberal bias.