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.
The funny thing here is I was bombarded by emails linking to Eisenstadt's videos for weeks before the election. It was pretty obvious the whole thing was a ruse. The funny thing was "Eisenstadt" was able to infiltrate McCain operations across the country...but it was so over the top, it seemed patently obvious the dude wasn't who he claimed to be.
Dang, and I hadn't realized this guy was the same as the "source" of the McCain campaign "leak" about Palin's intelligence and knowledge. Nice going, Fox News!
Crooks & Liars has, not one, but two instances where Fox News commentators broke from the script and criticized their peers for substituting dumbed-down talking points for discussion on Obama's recent speech on race and religion.
Hey listen, I love you guys but I want to take you to task if I may, respectfully, for a moment. I have been watching the show since 6:00 this morning when I got up, and it seems to me that two hours of Obama bashing on this typical white person remark is somewhat excessive and frankly I think you're somewhat distorting what Obama had to say.
And then it was Brian Kilmeade, who actually stormed off the set after defending Obama -- and getting ridiculed for it -- on "Fox & Friends."
You know it was a good speech if it causes Fox News commentators to show signs of intellectual honesty...
