It was a hoax: Palin does know Africa is a continent after all or does she?

It was among the juicier post-election recriminations: Fox News Channel quoted an unnamed McCain campaign figure as saying that Sarah Palin did not know that Africa was a continent.

It was among the juicier post-election recriminations: Fox News Channel quoted an unnamed McCain campaign figure as saying that Sarah Palin did not know that Africa was a continent.

Who would say such a thing? On Monday the answer popped up on a blog and popped out of the mouth of David Shuster, an MSNBC anchor. 8220;Turns out it was Martin Eisenstadt, a McCain policy adviser, who has come forward today to identify himself as the source of the leaks,8221; Shuster said.

Trouble is, Martin Eisenstadt doesn8217;t exist. His blog does, but it8217;s a put-on. The think tank where he is a senior fellow 8212; the Harding Institute for Freedom and Democracy 8212; is just a website. The TV clips of him on YouTube are fakes.

And the claim of credit for the Africa anecdote is just the latest ruse by Eisenstadt, who turns out to be a very elaborate hoax that has been going on for months. MSNBC, which quickly corrected the mistake, has plenty of company in being taken in by an Eisenstadt hoax, including The New Republic and The Los Angeles Times.

Now, a pair of obscure filmmakers say they created Martin Eisenstadt to help them pitch a TV show based on the character. But under the circumstances, why should anyone believe a word they say?

8220;That8217;s a really good question,8221; one of the two, Eitan Gorlin. They say the blame lies not with them but with shoddiness in the traditional news media and especially the blogosphere.

Gorlin, 39, argued that Eisenstadt was no more of a joke than half the bloggers or political commentators on the Internet or television.

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An MSNBC spokesman, Jeremy Gaines, explained the network8217;s misstep by saying someone in the newsroom received the Palin item in an e-mail message from a colleague and assumed it had been checked out. 8220;It had not been vetted,8221; he said. 8220;It should not have made air.8221;

Eisenstadt became an adviser to John McCain and got a blog, updated occasionally with comments claiming insider knowledge, and other bloggers began quoting and linking to it. It mixed weird-but-true items with false ones that were plausible, if just barely.