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Palin didn't know that Africa is a continent

I really think this is one of those cases where it reflects more on the people who believe it than the person in question. ;)
 
Johnny Canuck2 said:
It came out today that this was a prank done by a blogger. The blogger invented a fictitious 'consultant' who supposedly leaked the info about Palin. Then, MSNBC picked up the story and ran with it without sufficient fact checking, allegedly.


http://www.smh.com.au/news/technolo...africa-faux-pas/2008/11/14/1226318898086.html
Click to expand...

The stories about this don't make it too clear whether the prankster leaked the false information himself, or falsely claimed to be the guy who leaked the information.

Palin's complained about remarks she made during debate prep having been taken out of context for the stories about her being clueless about Africa, NAFTA, etc. so I reckon there might be some truth in it.
 
"If there are allegations based on questions or comments that I made in debate prep about NAFTA, and about the continent vs. the country when we talk about Africa there, then those were taken out of context. That's cruel, It's mean-spirited. It's immature. It's unprofessional and those guys are jerks if they came away with it, taking things out of context and then tried to spread something on national news. It's not fair, and it's not right."

I guess she maybe has a point about it being wrong to take the remarks out of context, but that doesn't sound much like a denial to me.
 
Johnny Canuck2 said:
Except that the person who made it up, said that it was a prank, and that he made it up.
Click to expand...

The coverage is being worded to make that seem like the case, but the guy's not claiming to have made up the story, only to have pretended to be the anonymous source for the Fox reporter who used the story.

"To be very clear, no, we were not the source for Carl Cameron and never spoke to him. We took credit for his anonymous sourcing. If they were going to be cowards, then we figured we may as well step in."


http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser..._we_figured_we_may_as_well_step_in_100502.asp
 
Yossarian said:
The coverage is being worded to make that seem like the case, but the guy's not claiming to have made up the story, only to have pretended to be the anonymous source for the Fox reporter who used the story.

"To be very clear, no, we were not the source for Carl Cameron and never spoke to him. We took credit for his anonymous sourcing. If they were going to be cowards, then we figured we may as well step in."


http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser..._we_figured_we_may_as_well_step_in_100502.asp
Click to expand...


The point is, there's no evidence that there's any truth in the allegation, no matter how much you'd like to believe that it is.
 
Johnny Canuck2 said:
The point is, there's no evidence that there's any truth in the allegation, no matter how much you'd like to believe that it is.
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Of course there isn't - it came from an anonymous source within the McCain camp, which is what the prankster was playing on. Maybe tape of the debate prep exists but if it does I'm sure it's been buried deep in an Alaskan snowbank by now.
 
Yossarian said:
Of course there isn't - it came from an anonymous source within the McCain camp, which is what the prankster was playing on. Maybe tape of the debate prep exists but if it does I'm sure it's been buried deep in an Alaskan snowbank by now.
Click to expand...

You're being a bit thick tonight....


Fox News quoted an unnamed McCain campaign figure as saying Sarah Palin did not know 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," Shuster said.

Trouble is, Martin Eisenstadt doesn't exist
Click to expand...
 
He didn't speak to Fox News and tell them he was a McCain insider who had a story about Palin not knowing that Africa was a continent.

He called up MSNBC or whoever and said "That anonymous source you're all wondering about for the Palin story? It's me, Martin Eisenstadt!"

He has since admitted the whole 'Martin Eisenstadt' persona was a hoax and explained that the Africa story didn't originate with him, but some of the outlets reporting the story - and, apparently, yourself - are mixing up the concepts of being something and pretending to be something.
 
laptop said:
And here's her attempt at a rebuttal:

"I think if there are allegations based on questions or comments that I made in debate prep about Nafta or about the continent versus the country when we talk about Africa there, then those were taken out of context and that is cruel," she told reporters in her home state of Alaska.
Click to expand...




She's still not looked it up :D
Click to expand...

Whether or not the original quote was made up or not, that quote makes it clear that she does think there's a country called Africa, as well as a continent.
 
Yossarian said:
He called up MSNBC or whoever and said "That anonymous source you're all wondering about for the Palin story? It's me, Martin Eisenstadt!".
Click to expand...

Yes, he did.


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,"

Shuster said.
Click to expand...

He says that he was the source of the leaks.
 
From 'Martin Einstadt's' blog:

UPDATE (scroll down for original post)…. MSNBC did a nice “Breaking News” piece on me with David Schuster interviewing my fellow pundits, “Republican strategist” Todd Boulanger and “Democratic strategist” David Goodfriend about my difficult decision to come clean as the source of the Africa story. MSNBC tried to reach me today for an on-camera interview as well, but I was traveling between DC and New York when the story aired. I certainly have my issues with NBC, and even Keith Olbermann’s used me as a source on several occasions, so at least it was nice that this time they gave me full attribution.
Click to expand...
 
By now you’ve all heard the Fox News report last week that “unnamed” former McCain advisers leaked that Sarah Palin was confused about whether Africa was a continent, and which countries were in NAFTA. I was perfectly happy staying under the radar as an anonymous source for Fox News‘ Carl Cameron, but now that Palin has accused her accusers of being “unprofessional…jerks…cowards… taking things out of context, and then tried to spread something on national news” and begun to cast doubt on the Fox News report, maybe she’s right to a certain extent. For those of us on the McCain campaign who thought that she acted like a rogue diva and lost John the election, maybe we DO have a responsibility to come out in public. But Sarah… careful what you ask for: some of us may have more to reveal.

So yes, to be clear, last week I was the one who leaked those things to a producer at Fox News who works with Cameron.
Click to expand...

...........................

In other words, the blogger pretending to be Einstadt, contacted the producer at Fox News.
 
Johnny Canuck2 said:
From 'Martin Einstadt's' blog:
Click to expand...

Yep, from the blog of a fake persona. If Ali G or Borat or somebody claimed to be the source of the leak, it wouldn't make it the case.

To repeat from above:

"To be very clear, no, we were not the source for Carl Cameron and never spoke to him. We took credit for his anonymous sourcing. If they were going to be cowards, then we figured we may as well step in."


http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/..._in_100502.asp

If man himself saying "No, I did not make it up" doesn't convince you that he didn't make it up I guess nothing will - maybe he's running some kind of complicated double-hoax and Martin Eisenstadt really does exist.
 
same article:

An MSNBC spokesman, Jeremy Gaines, explained the network’s misstep by saying someone in the newsroom received the Palin item in an e-mail message from a colleague and assumed it had been checked out. “It had not been vetted,” he said. “It should not have made air.”
Click to expand...

The reason it shouldn't have made air, is because it came from Einstadt, and it was a hoax.
 
Johnny Canuck2 said:
The reason it shouldn't have made air, is because it came from Einstadt, and it was a hoax.
Click to expand...


The item they're talking about isn't "Palin doesn't know about Africa," it's "Eisenstadt owns up to being GOP source behind Africa story."

"However, while MSNBC — which ran with Eisenstadt's story, along with The New Republic — has retracted the story (that Eisenstadt was the McCain camp leak), Fox News won't be retracting Carl Cameron's original report about the Palin/Africa flap, because it did not come from Eisenstadt."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/11/13/martin-eisenstadt-the-man_n_143547.html
 
Yossarian said:
The item they're talking about isn't "Palin doesn't know about Africa," it's "Eisenstadt owns up to being GOP source behind Africa story."

"However, while MSNBC — which ran with Eisenstadt's story, along with The New Republic — has retracted the story (that Eisenstadt was the McCain camp leak), Fox News won't be retracting Carl Cameron's original report about the Palin/Africa flap, because it did not come from Eisenstadt."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/11/13/martin-eisenstadt-the-man_n_143547.html
Click to expand...

If there continues to be a real, if anonymous source, then there is no need to retract the story.
 
I was the one who leaked those things to a producer at Fox News who works with Cameron.

That whole blog is satire written by somebody *pretending* to be an insider in the John McCain campaign - do you think that sentence is a single nugget of truth? 'Martin Eisenstadt' didn't do any of the things he says he did in that blog because 'Martin Eisenstadt' doesn't exist - and that includes leaking the Palin story.
 
p.s. I see you figure that you've got this sussed, and that some of the news agencies reporting the story, are in the dark.

Maybe you should right to them and set them straight.:)
 
Johnny Canuck2 said:
If there continues to be a real, if anonymous source, then there is no need to retract the story.
Click to expand...

That's why Fox News is not retracting the story about Palin not knowing about Africa, but why MSNBC *is* retracting the story about 'Eisenstadt' being the source.

If a prankster had fooled media in the '70s into believing that he was Deep Throat and then admitted that he wasn't, that wouldn't mean Deep Throat didn't exist.
 
Johnny Canuck2 said:
p.s. I see you figure that you've got this sussed, and that some of the news agencies reporting the story, are in the dark.

Maybe you should right to them and set them straight.:)
Click to expand...

Most of them aren't - they're just using wording which seems to have confused some people.

Headline from the link you posted:

'Prank blog takes credit for Palin's Africa faux pas'

They took credit. That was the prank.
 
Detroit City said:
who gives a shit....i don't even want to talk about that skank anymore
Click to expand...
Skank?

Tell us why Sarah Palin, a married mother of five, is a skank.

Or is it just another thick, lazy, miserable generalised term of abuse aimed at a woman?

Of all the things you could have criticised her for, you choose the fact she is a sexually active woman.

Tell us again why you're single? Ugh.
 
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