Foxnews, Governor Sarah Palin, and Africa
It seems that Foxnews is standing by their "Palin didn't know where Africa was" story. This seems pretty odd considering the facts that:
- The New York Times retracted the story as a hoax
- MSNBC retracted the story as a hoax.
- McCain's campaign manager Rick Davis does not back up this phoney story.
Now, some people keep stating the story is true, quoting this statement, seen at Foxnews: "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."
This sounds very cut-and-dried, doesn't it? Let us look further at the story. It was posted at Foxnews.com, but is actually an AP story written by DAVID BAUDER, an AP Television Writer. This same quote can also be found at USATODAY; again from the same AP story.
Follow that? This is an AP story, reprinted at Foxnews.com, not a Foxnews story. The inaccurate claim that Foxnews is standing by the story rests on the fact that they reprinted this AP story. The writer, David Bauder, is one whose accuracy is highly suspect. A 2005 quote about Mr. Bauder states that: "Now it appears that David Bauder may be added to the AP’s own rogues’ gallery of reporters who wilfully or lazily inject bias into their stories." (source) The year is 2005. Notice that? This is the man's reputation some three years before this phoney Palin/Africa story comes along.
So, where does this leave us? With a phoney story, made by a non-existant person, from a non-existant think-tank, retracted by The New York Times and MSNBC, and the only support still remaining about "the veracity of that report" is from a guy known to be biased.
