MSNBC, Others Fall Hard for Pundit Prank

Everyone who overdoses on political coverage knows some of the pundits frequently touted as experts on cable news and in newspapers have pretty thin credentials. But it took a brilliant prank to expose just how thin.

As The New York Times reported last night, MSNBC, the Los Angeles Times, The New Republic and a host of other outlets have all taken turns getting duped by one Martin Eisenstadt, supposedly an adviser to the McCain campaign and a senior fellow at a think tank called the Harding Institute for Freedom and Democracy.

Of course, the Harding Institute doesn't exist, and neither does Eisenstadt, except as the creation of two mischief-minded filmmakers, Eitan Gorlin and Dan Mirvish.

MSNBC had to retract a report last night that Eisenstadt was responsible for the leak about Sarah Palin not knowing whether Africa was a country or a continent. (It wasn't such a great night for the network all around.)

Making MSNBC's credulousness more embarrassing is that various writers and bloggers have blown the whistle on Eisenstadt after catching a whiff of something fishy. They include William K. Wolfrum, who has tenaciously sought to debunk the hoax.

Not mentioned in the Times story are a pair of Eisenstadt-planted rumors that got wide blogosphere play in the final days of the campaign: the claim that Barack Obama would appear on Saturday Night Live shortly before the election, and a story about SNL cast member Kristen Wiig making out with Samuel "Joe the Plumber" Wurzelbacher.