Palin leaker unmasked

You’ll remember the post-election report on Fox News, citing unnamed McCain campaign staffers as claiming Sarah Palin thought Africa was a country as opposed to a continent. Apparently there’s a pretty elaborate hoax behind that. The New York Times dutifully investigated the leak and learned someone put up a phony blog by a fictitious campaign staffer divulging the Africa anecdote. MSNBC had more on the story, naming the leaker as Martin Eisenstadt (who doesn’t actually exist), of the Harding Institute for Freedom and Democracy (which is nothing more than a Web site). YouTube video of Eisenstadt is faked as well, MSNBC reported. Another reminder that much of what circulates in the blogosphere should be taken with a grain of skepticism.

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