Hooray for New Media? Or something...

[pyat]

Link from snobahr!

So, it seems the information that Palin didn't know Africa was a continent, despite being widely reported and repeated by McCain campaign folks, was actually a joke from a fake blog.

So... way to go, McCain and Palin campaign? I have no idea how to process this information.

Edit: I suspect my memory of hearing campaign staff talking about the Africa thing is based on my memories of the FOX news report, which was false.

Comments

[pyat.livejournal.com]

The fact that her own campaign staff were repeating the claims is pretty scary, yes.

[rowyn]

Which McCain staffers were repeating this claim?

[pyat.livejournal.com]

Hmmm.

Googling a bit, it seems that some of them had been directly saying or leaking some negative information to the media, but this was about things like her general preparation and readiness, etc..

Indeed, I don't know that anyone in the campaign repeated the bit about Africa! In fact, I suspect my memory of this is based on reports based on the FOX news report from their political correspondent guy.

*edits post to reflect*

[pyat.livejournal.com]

Watching the FOX guy's clip on Bill O'Reilly, he is directly saying that he heard it from "McCain aides" earlier that day.

Hmmm...

What's even more confusing is that a Palin aide claimed that she had been misquoted on the Africa thing, and reported the specific situation that caused the misunderstanding. Or, at least, that's what she told ABC News.
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Politics/Story?id=6196407&page=1

[aslowhite.livejournal.com]

I read about this in today's Post, but I hadn't heard about the Palin aide saying the Africa gaffe was a misquote.

The fact that so many people (moi aussi) so readily believed it tells you something...

And condolences for having to watch O'Reilly. ;-)

ETA: Having read further comments here and looking back at the Post story, I realize tht it does indeed say that Eisenstadt merely claimed to be the leaker. No one seems to have confirmed or denied the original story.