UPDATE: Or were they? See the comments section for more on this story. Maybe I was duped? I dunno. One thing seems to be certain. Whatever egg is on whoever's faces, it would appear that yes, Sarah Palin really is that stupid.
ORIGINAL POST:
This post is just to express a little angst, which is a primary reason i started the blog. I've read--in several places--that MSNBC's David Shuster was duped by a phony "McCain staffer" named Martin Eisenstadt. The story that was reported was the now familiar one about Sarah Palin not knowing that Africa was a continent, and not knowing the countries in North America.
Now, neither of those "facts" has been disputed, and Palin's own denial was very, very weak. But apparently, the source was a phony. Kind of like the (likely) real information about George W. Bush's military record being released on a counterfeit document. Shuster reported the story, found out it was likely false, and then retracted the story. Big deal, right?
But almost everything I've heard about this story poked fun (usually mean-spiritedly) at Shuster and MSNBC. What gets glossed over, is that this story was originally reported by Carl Cameron of FOX "News." Other news organizations then reported the story using FOX as a source. And it was a juicy, completely believeable story. Who could blame them? But it is curious that MSNBC is taking heat for a FOX "News" punking.
[Excerpt]
MSNBC retracts false Palin story; others duped
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. . .
Read more at: Breitbart
Unfortunately, you are very mistaken. Eisenstadt was not the source for Carl Cameron's report. Cameron says so, and in fact "Eisenstadt" himself says so, in talking with TVNewser:
ReplyDelete"To be very clear, no, we were not the source for Carl Cameron and never spoke to him," Mirvish tells TVNewser. "We took credit for his anonymous sourcing. If they were going to be cowards, then we figured we may as well step in."
I think you owe Cameron and Fox News an apology.
Whoa! Johnny Dollar himself! OK, so you're saying the duping was only on a source? But the story is true, and Cameron was correct?
ReplyDeleteThen I'm even more confused on what the story really is here. Is Shuster a dummy because he misreported the source of the story? If so, it's not much of a duping. If the source was incorrectly named, but the story is true. . .who really cares?
And I hardly think I've besmirched Cameron much. How about a "I'm sorry if Mr. Cameron was offended" apology?
Nobody has presented any evidence that Cameron's report is not true. It's multiple-sourced and there's no reason to doubt that he was in fact told these things by people on the McCain staff. And while some have challenged the truthfulness of what these staffers told him, I haven't heard anyone who argued that he actually didn't get the info from McCain staffers. Well, except you that is! ;)
ReplyDeleteI'll leave it to you if you think Shuster's gullibility is much of a duping or not. It's probably not up there with "Karl Rove will in fact be indicted", but then not much is.
OK, and thanks for the correction. I've updated the post to direct people to the comments to see what you have to say. I have no reason to doubt you either.
ReplyDeleteAnd thanks for stopping by! Since the election, traffic has fallen (and it wasn't so hot to begin with). And even fewer people deign to comment.
Wow. Thought I was done with this one. I'm LINKED on Johnny Dollar's Place? And as a BLUE BLOG, no less!
ReplyDeleteHey, I'll admit that I squeeze this blog in between work and bedtime, and sometimes I get something wrong. It's right there in my mission statement. This is kinda small-scale wrong, but OK. I'll take my lumps.
Bit of egg on your face, eh Greenie?
ReplyDeleteIf you say so. And it's Greenlee
ReplyDelete