The Veracity of the AP

Last week, Fox News reported that an anonymous source inside the McCain campaign claimed that Sarah Palin did not know that Africa was a continent. On Monday of this week, MSNBC reported that the anonymous source was McCain policy advisor Martin Eisenstadt, a senior fellow at the Harding Institute for Freedom and Democracy. As it turns out, however, there is no Martin Eisenstadt, nor is there a Harding Institute for Freedom and Democracy. The whole thing was a hoax perpetrated by Eitan Gorlin and Dan Mirvish. The pair made up the name Martin Eisenstadt and the name of the phony think tank, then claimed to be the source of the leak about Palin’s alleged lack of understanding of basic fourth grade geography.

Today, an AP report states that MSNBC has retracted their story that Martin Eisenstadt was the source. However, the AP report also states, “The hoax was limited to the identity of the source in the story about Palin — not the Fox News story itself. While Palin has denied that she mistook Africa for a country, the veracity of that report was not put in question by the revelation that Eisenstadt is a phony.”

What? How can the revelation that Eisenstadt is a phony not put the veracity of the report in question? First of all, the veracity of the report was put into question by the report itself. When we hear a report that a governor of a state does not know that Africa is a continent, we should immediately question the veracity of that report. I don’t care what side of the political aisle a candidate is on, he or she is not likely to make it to the level of dog catcher without having a better understanding of the world than that. I really doubt there is a governor in this country, republican, democrat, independent, or other who cannot name all seven continents. Now add to that the fact that we know the revelation of the source of the leak was a complete hoax, and the AP doesn’t think that the veracity of the report is in question?

I think the veracity of the AP is in question.