Operative tries to debunk Palin story - and fails

The right-wing idea engine is desperate. And when I say desperate, do I mean desperate!

Recently it was revealed - "leaked", as the noise machine has put it - that Sarah Palin thinks Africa is a country, not a continent. No serious news organization doubts this story about Palin, as it came from multiple aides in the McCain camp.

But on Monday, MSNBC reported that the story came from a source that later turned out to be fake. Their excuse for reporting a phony source is that someone in the network's newsroom passed the bogus source along in an e-mail.

Isn't that convenient?

The story of Palin's behavior is obviously real, given the number of different sources. But who'd be inclined to believe it after MSNBC used one fake source that was popped into the mix?

It's pretty clear what happened: Some operative who works behind the scenes at MSNBC passed this source along because they knew it would cast doubt on the whole story. They treated the source as real just to set the story up to be debunked.

In summary, here's the facts: Failin' Palin thought Africa isn't a continent. Some media insider couldn't stand this being reported, so - out of desperation - they tried sabotaging the story. And it didn't work. Everyone still knows Palin is an incompetent moron.

This isn't the first time something like this has happened to derail a story, and I know it won't be the last, as long as America's school system trains rightist operatives to fill positions at news organizations. If there's even one newsroom employee who puts partisanship ahead of accuracy, facts suffer.

(Source: AP)