Poolside Palin

Photos here.

If you don't think it's her, check out photo No. 5. That's definitely her profile. Also note the Diet Dr. Pepper on the table.

Howard Kurtz doesn't get it

Howard Kurtz plays a game of Trig Palin trutherism semantics and gets burnt.

Kurtz should be writing about the fact that Andrew Sullivan, a blogger for a mainstream media outlet, is so unhinged that he still thinks this is a legitimate story, and still pledges to chase it down. Sullivan is certifiably insane, and yet retains his post at a mainstream outlet.

Cuomo lands Ayers interview

If you were a terrorist tree, what kind of terrorist tree would you be?

First on TVNewser: William Ayers has stayed largely silent during the nearly two years of election coverage, even as his name was mentioned in many forms.

But the Chicago activist who has been tied to President-elect Barack Obama is breaking his silence tomorrow when he appears on ABC's Good Morning America. Chris Cuomo conducts the live interview.

We did not leak to Carl Cameron

Just to be clear, the two hoaxsters who were able to fool MSNBC into believing they were a McCain advisor named "Martin Eisenstadt" and leaked the Palin smears are saying they did not leak to Carl Cameron.

"To be very clear, no, we were not the source for Carl Cameron and never spoke to him," Mirvish tells TVNewser. "We took credit for his anonymous sourcing. If they were going to be cowards, then we figured we may as well step in."

This seems pretty obvious to me, but maybe some people are confused. Cameron travels with the McCain campaign and would not have gone with information from someone calling him up he's never met before. Plus there is enough half-truth in some of the stories that it would be impossible for "Eisenstadt" to know about the slips of the tongue Palin made during debate prep. As irresponsible as Cameron's reporting has been on this issue, I doubt he's that irresponsible.

Harding Institute and Marin Eisenstadt not real

Confirmed.

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.

In the comments at Hot Air, Debbie Schlussel claims to know the hoaxer, who has a very political background.

In real life, Eitan Gorlin is a former Orthodox Jew, whom I once knew and who worked for then-Congressman Jack Kemp as an intern. He became a left-winger and made a horridly boring and despicable anti-Israel movie that went up in smoke.

On the hoax, the guy who outed him noted that Eitan took part of my own bio for his “Martin Eisenstadt” character. I kept getting these e-mails from people touting Eisenstadt and the e-mails were always slightly weird and a little off-kilter, so I never fell for the tips, repeated them on my site, or included them on my blogroll, which they kept asking me to do. They told me that Jeffrey Hart was supporting Obama, which was the first hint they were fakes.

I thought the guy looked like and sounded like Eitan when, last night, I saw the videos they made, including one where “Eisenstadt” (Gorlin) claimed he saw Michelle Malkin having an affair with John McCain behind close doors. As if. . . . Puh-leeze. Democratic Underground bought into that, though.

Michelle did cite Eisenstadt’s comments on Paris Hilton, though.

The strangest thing, though, is that we never heard from the McCain campaign throughout the entire year of this non-person creation claiming he is a McCain advisor. Never a mention that, “Hey, we don’t have an advisor by that name.”

UPDATE

"Martin Eisenstadt" also was interviewed by a less-than-convinced host on Breitbart TV.

Couric consulted Obama advisor before Palin interview

Is this a scandal?

HT/Weasel Zippers

UPDATE: Conde Nast has pulled the article down, but I copied the original below.

Katie's Little Helpers: How Couric Prepped for Palin
At Quadrangle's Foursquare conference today, Portfolio's own Matt Cooper interviewed Katie Couric, Brian Williams and George Stephanopoulos about covering the presidential campaign that was. Matt says he's sworn to secrecy, and you know I wasn't invited, but one person who was there says it was a lively discussion, with Williams teasing Couric about all the attention she got for her campaign-narrative-altering interviews of Sarah Palin.

Couric shed some light on her preparation for the interviews: Beforehand, she sought advice from former senator Sam Nunn and Council on Foreign Relations president Richard Haas. They told her to draw Palin out on her geopolitical worldview and urged her to let the governor speak at length without interrupting her. Maybe she should bring them along with her when she takes over at Meet the Press?

Who is Sam Nunn?

He's a Democrat who joined Obama's foreign policy team in April, five months before Couric interviewed Palin.

Sam Nunn lines up behind Barack Obama as best equipped to stop political ‘demonizing, dumbing down’
Friday, April 18, 2008, 12:25 PM

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Former Georgia senator Sam Nunn, who toyed with the concept of a non-partisan run for president last year, has come down on the side of Barack Obama in the Democratic race for president.

The former senator, considered one of the nation’s preeminent experts on U.S. defense, met with Obama’s foreign policy team this morning.

In a just released statement, Nunn said Obama “will have the sound judgment to put together an outstanding governing team, bringing people together across old boundaries.”

“My own role in this campaign will be as an advisor - particularly in the field of national security and foreign policy,” Nunn said.

Though not a superdelegate to the Democratic National

O'Reilly: Most loved and most hated journalist

Half the names appear on both the lists. And most of those polled wouldn't respond.

America's Favorite Campaign Journalists

As the Pew Research Center's Weekly News Interest Index has shown, the public followed news about the 2008 presidential campaign more closely than any presidential election in the past 20 years. Americans relied primarily on television news for information about the campaign, and cable TV was the dominant medium1.


When asked to name their favorite and least favorite campaign journalist or commentator, Bill O'Reilly was named most frequently as the favorite -- and as the least favorite. O'Reilly was named by 5% as their favorite journalist or commentator, while 3% each named Tom Brokaw and Sean Hannity. However, fully half could not name anyone as their favorite.

When asked to name their least favorite journalist or news commentator who covered the campaign this year, 60% offered no response. Among those who did name someone, O'Reilly also topped the list (6%). Katie Couric of CBS News was named by 5% of the public as their least favorite campaign journalist. In addition, 3% named each of the following: the Fox News Channel, Rush Limbaugh, Keith Olbermann, and Sean Hannity