Whatever It Took to Knife Sarah Palin

It should surprise no one that even big-time blogs like the Huffington Post fell for the clever hoax perpetrated against Sarah Palin after the election, adding insult to injury to the abuse the Alaska governor had already experienced from the left-wing blogosphere.

But let’s give credit to where it’s due. The hoax in which an anonymous McCain advisor accused Palin of not knowing that Africa is a continent apparently got its start at Fox News and was later amplified by David Shuster at MSNBC, where else?

Mr. Shuster eagerly reported: “Turns out it was Martin Eisenstadt, a McCain policy adviser, who has come forward today to identify himself as the source of the leaks.”

The NY Times’ Richard Perez-Pena sets the record straight.

“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.”

It also turns out that Sarah Palin’s description of those pajama-wearing bloggers posting in their parents’ basements was dead on. According to Perez-Pena, irresponsible, uninformed bloggers were a prime force in spreading the false rumors about Palin:

“But most of Eisenstadt’s victims have been bloggers, a reflection of the sloppy speed at which any tidbit, no matter how specious, can bounce around the Internet. And they fell for the fake material despite ample warnings online about Eisenstadt, including the work of one blogger who spent months chasing the illusion around cyberspace, trying to debunk it.”

Read more here.