In Desperate Times, Media Discards Journalists, Factchecking

Just when we thought we would have to drown our sorrows in a White Russian with the departure of America's favorite hockey mom, the liberal media elite seized on Sarah Palin's latest gaffe: confusing Africa the country with Africa the continent (hint: it's the second one). But which of the disgruntled McCain staffers leaked the damaging amusing-without-fear-of-being-one-heartbeat-away story?

MSNBC was first on the scene, airing a "Breaking News" segment that revealed the identity of the culprit, one Martin Eisenstadt. "We now have a face and a name, a McCain foreign policy adviser," Anchor David Shuster announced gleefully. The only problem? Martin Eisenstadt doesn't actually exist. The New York Times reveals that he's a creation of Eitan Gorlin and Dan Mirvish, two filmmakers who sought to point out the absurdity of the 24-hour-news cycle that seizes any piece of information, regardless of its credibility.

The presence of Democratic and Republican strategists on the MSNBC program analyzing Eisenstadt's role on the MSNBC program only poured more salt into an already gaping wound. Eisenstadt was supposedly a Senior Fellow at The Harding Institute, but come on, no sane think tank in America would name itself after Warren G. Harding, whose approval ratings were only marginally higher than Bush II's. We can only assume that the geniuses behind this one were summarily fired (Editors: How many people we can get rid of for this one? 7? 25?)

Two words for the media: Stephen Glass. Stop assuming that everyone is a senior McCain foreign policy advisor and actually google the guy first. The MSNBC video after the jump: