A New York Times article reports that one of John McCain advisors who was quoted by various news sources as saying Sarah Palin did not know that Africa was a continent does not really exist.

 

Martin Eisenstadt, the “McCain policy adviser” who was quoted is in fact Eitan Gorlin who with “his partner in deception”, Dan Mirvish, created a bogus organization on the internet called the Harding Institute for Freedom and Democracy. They released a couple of interviews on You Tube and as far as the news media was concerned they were legitimate.

 

 I don’t know about anyone else but this frightens me. I can understand some less than brilliant person at home responding to the email and from a nice diplomat in Africa who wants to send them millions of dollars if they will just kindly send their bank account information to speed the processing.

 

However the idea that reputable news agencies (and Fox News as well) would get information off the net and then pass it off as fact without checking the source… that has to make me wonder at every “fact” they release. I think the safest thing to do is just stick with Jon Stewart and the Onion News Network and then I don’t have to worry about whether it’s true or not.

 

Professor I. Corey, a spokesman for the Bush White House was quoted as saying that “this type of misinformation and sladerous lies was patented by the Republicans and they would not allow it to be subverted “

The Onion News reported today that You Tube was having a contest for users asking them to post an actually entertaining video… or as they phrased one… a video that did not totally suck.

 

I do not know if they were thinking about the hamster eating popcorn video we referred to in an earlier post but my guess is that this is an example of the genre they were referencing when they thought of the contest. The rule and suggestions included “Try making a video for a reason other than you have a video camera ” and “Try making the video when sober”.

 

The shape of things to come… actual entertainment on You Tube instead of the regular porn links, tragic accident videos, and  bizarre rodent escapades.