Phony McCain Consultant "Martin Eisenstadt" Takes Big Media and Blogs for a Ride

Martain Eisentadt doesn't exist, neither does the Harding Institute of which he was a "Sr. Fellow." He never consulted for McCain or anyone else for that matter. He was joke, and many in the media bought in to it. He "leaked" rumors about Sarah Palin which MSNBC were only too eager to jump on. He was behind the widely circulated assertions that Joe the Plumber is related to Charles Keating, and that Paris Hilton's grandparents called the McCain campaign to complain about the use of their granddaughter in a McCain commercial. All widely reporter.

The New York times today did a big splash on this scam, eager to point the finger at other news outlets for their naivete. Of course, the New York Times have made far more serious mistakes than most media outlets or your average blog. And who can forget the famous New York Times image of an Israeli soldier coming to the rescue of an innocent tourist injured by a Palestinian mob. The New York Times' caption read "Israeli Policeman and a Palestinian on the Temple Mount." Of course, they later apologized for the outrageous misrepresentation. I would argue that the Times were not the victims of that scam but were participants. The Times, for example, knows that there are no roads or cars on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, but you clearly see a car and a traffic sign in the image. That alone should have given them pause. It seems that the fantasy of an Israel soldier bashing in the head of a Palestinian fit their agenda and their prejudices far better, regardless of truth.