"McCain Adviser" Revealed To Be A Hoax

"Martin Eisenstadt" Fooled MSNBC And Other News Organizations With Phony Claims

(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."

[darrren12000]

Excuse me -- but you are supposed to use the "time on your hands" to investigate matters instead of rushing it to get on your blog to generate traffic! What a pathetic piece of ***!

[alohaone1]

The most stupid and naive candidate is Obama , who is taken as a fool by Chavez , Amadinejad and Putin. They will screw him up in no time . Does it bother anyone that the President of Iran is sending congratory letter to Obama ????? All the terrorists are having a party right now , and that can not be good for America ! God help us , we are about to get the same kind of Peace from the terrorists as Chamberlain got from Hitler for Britain , it is Peace alright ,but Does it really worth it ? and how long will it last ? they only need time to re-group before terrorizing us again then we will really be screwed by then . Enjoy your peace while you can ...Good luck!

[alohaone1]

For years the left has been whining about GOP nastiness and swiftboating , yet , they themselves are liars of the worse kind . They manufacture lies about Palin without even blinking their eyes . All the accomplishment the lady did in Alaska fighting the old boys corruption network never got reported , instead , we heard about who her daughter having *** with and why a trooper who used taser gun on an 11-year-old boy should not get fired and all those baseless lies about a good lady . Talking about looking stupid , one has to only look at Obama''s wife and know it . And what Obama has ever accomplished ? beside kissing up to Pelosi and Dean and Reid ???Has he ever the gut to tell them NO??? I just hope that we will not get screwed up too badly by this unproven lying arrogant black candidate in the next 4 years. He''ll be exposed for the fraud he is by then . Like Giuliani has said , he is the most inexperient candidate in the last 100 years and got elected. I blame Mc Cain for that . Wake up old man , the left is not Fair and Honest in any instance , too bad you did not see that soon enough , Mc cain deserve to lose while Palin DOES NOT!

[questionnews]

You can''''t force anyone to look stupid. PALIN IS STUPID! She couldn''''t answer a simple question regarding the bail out. Face it McCain did himself in by picking a unqualified, unintelligent person. So you Republiscums stop crying. YOU LOST BIG TIME! I''''m glad. All the GOP knows how to do is call people names and elect idiots to run the country. America wised up finally. For you losers still griping about Ayers then go attack Ayers for what he supposedly said or did. Obama did not know Ayers until AFTER he turned his life around and Chicago Acedemic world allowed him to be a professor. So what? Is the state of Illinos a terrorist state then? I''''m glad that most of the population is smart and didn''''t fall for you ignorant, inbred, racist republicans. Hopefully the GOP will not be in power for a looooong time.

Posted by cwarner23 at 06:32 PM : Nov 13, 2008

Geeeez For a member of a group of people that should be happy about the election results, you sure like to hold on to your venom & hatred.

"Gooood.......Gooood.....Let the hate flow through you, it makes you powerful. Come....come to the dark side."

[cwarner23-2009]

You can''t force anyone to look stupid. PALIN IS STUPID! She couldn''t answer a simple question regarding the bail out. Face it McCain did himself in by picking a unqualified, unintelligent person. So you Republiscums stop crying. YOU LOST BIG TIME! I''m glad. All the GOP knows how to do is call people names and elect idiots to run the country. America wised up finally. For you losers still griping about Ayers then go attack Ayers for what he supposedly said or did. Obama did not know Ayers until AFTER he turned his life around and Chicago Acedemic world allowed him to be a professor. So what? Is the state of Illinos a terrorist state then? I''m glad that most of the population is smart and didn''t fall for you ignorant, inbred, racist republicans. Hopefully the GOP will not be in power for a looooong time.

[dmb35]

Once that kind of unjust information is reported it spreads like wildfile and is impossible to retract; the damage is done and innocent people suffer. The media was so hell-bent on destroying the McCain/Palin campaign that they didn''t care to check the facts before reporting. Kind of reminds me of Dan Rather''s phony story about President Bush.

Governor Palin is not stupid but she was made to look stupid.

Joe Biden is stupid but he was given a pass by the media. Thoughout the campaign he kept getting his facts wrong but that was okay.

Obama denied ties with William Ayers. Now Ayers is appearing on morning shows to discuss the rewrite of his book in which he has added an afterward that explains he and Obama are family friends and that he did raise money for Obama''s campaigns. So it is true that Obama is family friend of a murderer and terrorist. He murdered several policement in New York. He bombed buildings. Yet Obama will soon be our president. If only the media hadn''t been drooling all over Obama''s every word, if only they had dug into Obama''s past, if only they had questioned why Obama had his state senate records sealed, maybe the election would have had a different outcome. Instead the media had chills running up and down their legs whenever Obama spoke. Disgusting.

[hairyonetooo]

THE GOP/MCCAIN ETC KEEP CRYING AND WHINING ABOUT THE LIBERAL MEDIA. ALL OF THE MEDIA SOURCES IN THE USA ARE OWNED BY REPUBLICANS. SOMETIME THEY LIE AND FAVOR THE REPUBLICANS, SOMETIMES THEY LIE AND BAD MOUTH THE DEMOCRATS, EVERY ONCE IN A WHILE THEY HAVE TO TELL THE TRUTH AND WHEN THEY DO IT APPEARS TO FAVOR THE DEMOCRATS, HOWEVER ITS JUST THE TRUTH.

[questionnews]

May I be the first to say "who cares?" Palin was an stooge before the "leak" and McCain lost the election because of it. The media seems to have a hard time digesting the fact that Obama won the election by 7 million votes. The people have spoken, you might want to listen up.

Posted by HarryDoghiny at 05:33 PM : Nov 13, 2008

You''re not!
But this psychotic obsession with Palin is just plain creepy. And so are those with this obsession.

[seafang]

Why Roachcrusher; why are you so shook up about a housewife from Wasilla Alaska, and what she may or may not know.

Truth is, that she got the attention of far more voters than John McCain ever did. His problem is that he is too dumb to understand that running one Democrat against another in the same election doesn''t work; even when one of them is an out and out Communist.

I take it that Roaches are pretty common in the trailer park where you live.

And the answer to your #4 question is simply start from any place in the USA and go in any direction but south (which gets you to Hawaii) and you will end up in Alaska; now inns''t that easy; even for you?

[spadeisspade]

This story wasn''t credible to begin with. Sarah Palin may not be a foreign policy guru (what average national politician in this country is?), but you really have to be living under a rock to not know Africa is a continent.

[asor1-2009]

Argh, if Sarah would just retire to Wasilly, take care of that brood she created and shut the #### up we would all be better off. Particularly the GOP.

[harrydoghiny]

May I be the first to say "who cares?" Palin was an stooge before the "leak" and McCain lost the election because of it. The media seems to have a hard time digesting the fact that Obama won the election by 7 million votes. The people have spoken, you might want to listen up.

[gce65]

Anybody see the documentary called "Yes Men?"

Similar story. Doing things like this is called culture jamming.

So many media outlets have ceased to practice real journalism in place of trying to be a "profit center" that it''s easier to take advantage of them and plant bogus stories or act as a source for information.

Maybe the media should go back to real journalism.

[gce65]

Note to Palin:

Check your stopwatch. It reads "14 minutes, 50 seconds."

Your 15 minutes of fame are almost up.

Lee Atwater and Karl Rove had lots of students - and not all of those students were republicans.
Funny thing, it was Palin herself that made this concocted story believable.

Posted by hadenough43 at 04:40 PM : Nov 13, 2008

Well, NO, it was actually the lying media and their ''''anonymous'''' source that don''''t hold any credibility whatsoever!

Posted by FromTexwLove at 04:46 PM : Nov 13, 2008
***************************
If any media - any media ANYWHERE - had reported this exact same thing saying it was McCain instead of Palin who didn''t know Africa was a continent, would''ve anybody believed it??
And it was Fox news that originally broke the story. Further proof that Fox news ain''t about news - it''s about something quite different.

[whitemale08]

this doesn''t clear up anythng as long as you have koocs requesting a Barrack''s birth certificat when all original birth certificates are in the hands of Treasury Secretary Hank the Snake Paulson.

Lee Atwater and Karl Rove had lots of students - and not all of those students were republicans.
Funny thing, it was Palin herself that made this concocted story believable.

[questionnews]

Agreed.

Just don''''t start thinkin we''''re gonna be takin any warm showers together...

Posted by actornaught at 04:33 PM : Nov 13, 2008


Geeez.. You pleasure a man with a socked foot one time in your life and everybody thinks your gay. When will I ever live that down??

[roachcrusher]

I would still ask her. Her initial response was to the effect that she knew they were not the same.

So does she still believe there is a country called Africa existing in the world somewhere?

Can she spell potato?

Can, she, like, talk?

Can she find Alaska on the map?

Can she say "you" (instead of "ya''")?

Can she please disappear (no question mark, it''s a rhetorical question).

[actornaught]

...Both sides can be so over the top.
Posted by Questionnews at 04:28 PM : Nov 13, 2008

Agreed.

Just don''t start thinkin we''re gonna be takin any warm showers together...