a definition of an “Eisenstadt”

by twit

Specifically, when you make things up out of thin air, and it turns out to be true… see what you want to see…

For example, the idea that Palin didn’t know that Africa was a continent:

was a hoax apparently true based in some reality, but smeared with an Eisenstadt.  According to the New York Times on November 13, 2008:

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. “Turns out it was Martin Eisenstadt, a McCain policy adviser, who has come forward today to identify himself as the source of the leaks,” Mr. Shuster said.

Trouble is, Martin Eisenstadt doesn’t exist. His blog does, but it’s a put-on. The think tank where he is a senior fellow — the Harding Institute for Freedom and Democracy — is just a Web site. 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.

What is so funny is that before the rumor was exposed as a hoax, Palin’s campaign staff confirmed that it was true there was a basis for the rumor.  ABC News reports on November 14, 2008:

Longtime Palin staffer Meg Stapleton told ABC News’ Kate Snow that Palin had fumbled over an Africa comment, but that it was a misspeak not worthy of the press coverage it received.

She explained that during a briefing session, someone asked Palin to explain the McCain-Palin stance on an issue, and as she was responding, “in the middle, she said ‘country of Africa’ and somebody instantly wrote it down and said, ‘Oh, my God, she thinks it’s a country.'”

But “she knows it’s a continent,” Stapleton said. “It was just a human mistake, just like Obama saying 57 states. I don’t think anyone ever doubted that Obama knows there are 50 states.”

But wait, there’s more…

Based on what appears on Martin Eisenstadt’s blog, it looks like this zeitgeist phenomena may also have happened when Eisenstadt “leaked” the drunken Seth Meyers slip about an invitation from Saturday Night Live to Obama on the weekend before the election.

First, Eisenstadt reported that the LA Times confirmed it, and I leave it to readers to decide whether there was confirmation in the LA Times quote.  But then, as Eisenstadt notes later on, a blogger with the strength of constitution to withstand the NPR show Fresh Air reports that Seth Meyers confirmed the invitation to NPR.  This twit lacks the ability to withstand that particular NPR program, and therefore is not going to confirm whether this is an accurate description of what was said.  Nevertheless, this kind of thing is quite a commentary on the way that information gets packaged and distributed in the news and on the web.

According to ABC News on November 14, 2008:

Eisenstadt is the fabrication of two filmmakers, Eitan Gorlin and Dan Mirvish, who, as The New York Times first reported Wednesday, succeeded at an elaborate hoax that fooled countless media outlets into believing Eisenstadt was a real political insider.

Over the course of the past year and a half, Gorlin and Mirvish — under the guise of Eisenstadt — infiltrated political coverage on several occasions, when media outlets picked up on their fake political commentary on their blog postings and video clips.

Although it seems important to point out that the hoaxes were mixed in with actual news reporting:

… not everything that Eisenstadt blogged about was false.

When news of Palin’s expensive wardrobe was leaked, Mirvish said that he did “legwork real journalists probably should have been doing” to research the money the campaign had been spending on makeup artists.

Mirvish claims to have discovered that there was a third person who had been paid by the RNC who, upon further investigation of the party’s FEC filings, was responsible for Palin’s fake tan — not her makeup.

and not that the LA Times blog Top of the Ticket is bitter or anything, but:

One day Martin told a fantastic tale about a woman, Paris Hilton, he had loved since the night he first saw her in an Internet film clip. To impress, Martin made up a story about Paris’ rich grandfather. He said things about the old man’s generous Republican donations and criticized someone named John McCain, who’d implied Paris was a mere celebrity.

After publishing his story Martin waited in his fuzzy slippers, hoping Paris would find him in his dank Schenectady basement.

But instead early last summer, a blog called The Ticket saw Martin’s made-up story and, never having been to Eisenstadt to hear the sad story of Eisenstadt, it mentioned some of Martin’s fictitious details about Paris’ grandpa and his nonexistent anger with McCain. How silly was that?

Then, that blog corrected itself in an item just like this.

It seems appropriate to let this character Eisenstadt have the last word:

For all you fellow travelers spewing such venom in my direction, bite on this for a moment. Before I announced that I was the source for the Palin/Africa story, everyone, without exception, believed it to be true. The only question was who leaked it. Now, as a result of me outing myself, there is doubt about even the original allegations. A smell of fishiness has crept into the whole story. And MSNBC is finally being called out for its rampant biases and sloppy journalism. I believe that’s what they call “taking one for the team”.

update: with thanks to William K. Wolfrum for the additional perspective.