Martin Eisenstadt was NOT the source of the Sarah Palin/Africa story
October 25, 2009 by William K. Wolfrum
As the world prepares itself for the release of Martin Eisenstadt’s heralded book, one thing about the whole thing still bugs me a year later.
You see, Carl Cameron went on Fox News and told Bill O’Reilly that a McCain insider told him that Sarah Palin was confused about whether Africa was a country or a continent, among other things. A couple days later, “Eisenstadt” came forward and said that he was the source. That was the entire hoax. They pretended to be the source. They were not. They just claimed to be the source. They did not fool Carl Cameron.
Let’s allow Eisenstadt co-creator Dan Mirvish put it simply:
“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.”
Many Palin supporters jumped on the Eisenstadt angle and decided the whole Palin/Africa thing was started by them. It wasn’t. Let’s let conservative blogger Allahpundit explain it simply now:
“What isn’t true: Speculation that “Eisenstadt” was indeed Cameron’s source and that CC got duped the same way MSNBC did.”
Just for the hell of it, let’s make a handy timeline:
1. Source tells Cameron that Palin was unsure whether Africa was a country or continent
2. Cameron reports this on Fox News, not giving his source.
3. Palin essentially confirms the “Africa” comments happened, claiming her comments were taken out of context.
4. Martin Eisenstadt says he is the source.
5. Martin Eisenstadt wasn’t the source.
6. The McCain insider that was the source for the Palin/Africa story is still unknown.
While I fully expect Palin supporters and some conservatives to ignore this completely and go on believing whatever they want to believe, I figured I’d take one last shot at clearing that up.
–WKW
Africa is a continent. I would like to offer my services to the GOP as a Vice Presidential candidate, you betcha.
(I wonder if I can spin the one season I spent as an assistant coach on my kid’s soccer team as executive experience?)
The bias liberal media will start attacking me soon. They can’t deal with an independent minded maverick who knows the difference between a continent and a country. Katie Couric will be disappointed when she pops her trick question about Australia. I’m not afraid of her, anyway. I’ve defended myself against bears attacking my helicopter.
Bill: Thank you for writing this post.
When the “Eisenstadt source” aspect of the Palin/Africa story broke, I thought that the revelation was exactly as you describe it here: that the hoax was Eisenstadt’s claim of being the source, *not* that Eisenstadt had created & planted the claim that Palin didn’t know if Africa was a continent or a country.
However, once the Eisenstadt claim was debunked, general consensus seemed to be that ol’ Marty had made whole thing up. The fact that no one appeared to follow up or clarify the story line was, I believe, likely due to the fact that the dominant media appear to be stunningly uninterested in clarifying matters that (a) call attention to their ineptitude and (b) don’t involve loud noises, shiny objects, or runaway balloons that may or may not contain six-year-olds. Also, considering the virtual deluge of revelations that confirmed the suspicion that Palin is, indeed, a moron, the Africa story got lost in the shuffle among the many other “real” stories.
All that said, though, the unwillingness or inability to clarify what was and was not hoax material is, to me, just one more example of “unimportant” matters being overlooked or brushed under the proverbial rug in the rush to get to the next big story. And while big stories and big-picture issues are important, the media’s habit of ignoring the little stuff feels a lot like an architect deciding to design a building by focusing only on the facade, while wasting no time on the boring details that no one will see (but which are responsible for keeping the structure upright & intact).
Again, thanks for this and the many other efforts you make to ensure that someone is paying attention to the little details. Heckuva post for a Sunday afternoon.
Thanks, Hugh. I wrote it because I stumbled across this, and with the book coming out I’m sure that meme will spread.