Martin Eisenstadt: The Man Who Fooled The Media — Just Not Carl Cameron

The New York Times Thursday identifies the man behind the elaborate hoax that tricked some members of the media into reporting that a McCain adviser named Martin Eisenstadt was behind the leaks that Sarah Palin didn't know whether Africa was a continent or a country.

According to the Times' Richard Perez-Pena, Eisenstadt is a fictional creation made up by two filmmakers:

Now a pair of obscure filmmakers say they created Martin Eisenstadt to help them pitch a TV show based on the character. But under the circumstances, why should anyone believe a word they say?

"That's a really good question," one of the two, Eitan Gorlin, said with a laugh.

(For what it's worth, another reporter for The New York Times is an acquaintance of Mr. Gorlin and vouches for his identity, and Mr. Gorlin is indeed "Mr. Eisenstadt" in those videos. He and his partner in deception, Dan Mirvish, have entries on the Internet Movie Database, imdb.com. But still. ...)

They say the blame lies not with them but with shoddiness in the traditional news media and especially the blogosphere.

"With the 24-hour news cycle they rush into anything they can find," said Mr. Mirvish, 40.

Mr. Gorlin, 39, argued that Eisenstadt was no more of a joke than half the bloggers or political commentators on the Internet or television.

However, while MSNBC — which ran with Eisenstadt's story, along with The New Republic — has retracted the story (that Eisenstadt was the McCain camp leak), Fox News won't be retracting Carl Cameron's original report about the Palin/Africa flap, because it did not come from Eisenstadt — which the Huffington Post was told on background earlier this week and which the filmmakers confirmed to TVNewser Thursday:

"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."

Comments

[Diane Tucker]

10:20 PM on 11/25/2008

"Martin Eisenstadt­" may have fooled the mainstream media, but he didn't fool the blogospher­e.

Here's the link:

http://www­.huffingto­npost.com/­diane-tuck­er/dont-ge­t-fooled-a­gain-how_b­_146236.ht­ml

[roblabrousse]

11:26 AM on 11/20/2008

Okay these guys are smucks. Smart smuck but still smucks. But they did do a service to this country. They did show weakness in the vetting of stories. I still believe that Sarah Palin doesn't know this stuff about Africa etc. It's because Palin's performanc­e in the media makes it believable­. This lie wasn't that much of a stretch. We all heard her speak and saw her interviewe­d.

So..I hope those two smucks get the television gig. It 's bound to be entertaini­ng!!!

And these smucks achieved something else they proved that the press will eventually get it right or so it seems. And as for Palin ...Russia, Africa it's all the same.

[nonamesleft]

04:07 PM on 11/14/2008

So basically the Africa story is still true.

That's all I needed to know.

Palin

is

stupid.

[flifishun]

10:54 AM on 11/14/2008

Journalism in the mainstream died long ago.

[naeblisone]

09:53 AM on 11/14/2008

Palin/Eise­nstadt '12!

[munki]

12:28 AM on 11/14/2008

someone is trying to finger point...

[iburl]

10:17 PM on 11/13/2008

Right Wing Comedians. ha. ha.

All they are doing is trying to muddy the waters about the Pailin "Africa is a Country" remarks. F.U.D. the forté of the Republican­.

[rafaelkafka]

07:40 PM on 11/13/2008

Biden said that FDR was the president in 1929 and much worst that he adressed to the nation on TV!

The dumbiest vp of american history!Pa­lin is an Einstein in front of Biden!

[valkyrie607]

09:52 PM on 11/13/2008

Uh... no. Biden, in his comments, was clearly extemporiz­ing some bullsh*t. It's not like he thinks that he was correct in saying FDR was pres. in 1929 or that they had TV back then. He was trying to make a point, and his mouth got ahead of his brain. His brain is solid, except for the whole mouth connection thing. What, you've never had a moment when you said something like, "Back during the Cuban missile crisis, when Carter was president.­.."?

Palin, on the other hand, literally can't construct a coherent paragraph without a teleprompt­er. If anyone has any doubt as to exactly how dense the gov. of Alaska is, just listen to the prank call made by a couple dudes from Montreal. Just listen to it, then come back and tell me how smart you think she is.

Here's the link:
http://uk.­youtube.co­m/watch?v=­ic7s8Qy9Fh­E

[artist4obama]

04:44 AM on 11/14/2008

there were plenly of clues that she was being pranked, but my favorite was when she just thanks him for the flattery (in dif. words I can't remember) when he says how much he enjoyed her documentar­y, "Nailin' Pailin" (the porn made about her). My god, how long does it take for this girl to get a clue!

[AZDillinger]

10:36 PM on 11/13/2008

HA HA what a joke.... Palin an Einstein??­? No i think not... Not in front of my 8 year old brother!!!

[ladycubsfan]

07:29 PM on 11/13/2008

The hoax is the guy claiming to be the anonymous source, NOT the original story about Palin. That was true. She really did not know that Africa is a continent. If anyone here thinks that FOX News wouldn't break their necks to report it as a hoax if they could, you are delusional­. They did not and they won't because it's true. Sean Hannity looooves Sarah. She is his wet dream come true. He just wishes the fake source had reported it to them first.

[Fair]

06:33 PM on 11/13/2008

Amazing, I thought they were the source of Carl Caneron's rant with BillO.

So there are people/cam­paign aids really trashing her...hila­rious.

[BOin08]

05:48 PM on 11/13/2008

Shuster pimped the wrong story? THAT has credibilit­y. LOL. Anyone who watches MSNBC for "news" is a tard

[ladyrefined2000]

07:42 PM on 11/13/2008

still waiting for Chris Mattews to apologise.­..........­.....guess it will never happen....­..

[iburl]

10:19 PM on 11/13/2008

Anyone who calls millions of more-intel­ligent-tha­n-average americans 'tard(s)' in a blog comments is a .... nevermind.

[Mysticalsister]

04:11 PM on 11/13/2008

The hoax really isn't the story -- the story is how readily everyone believed it.

Palin is such an intellectu­al lightweigh­t that it never occurred to anyone to doubt her stupidity. She has become the poster queen for a segment of the U.S. population content to read their bible and not much else. They have been left to fester like a boil for 8 long years and the MSM has been afraid to call attention to their heavy handed influence on education and social issues based on absurd superstiti­on and intoleranc­e.

Palin has changed all that. Humorous and critical assessment of her limited intelligen­ce, and bizarre beliefs has shown light on these flat earth folks, and they and she will be be fodder for comedians for years to come. All I can say about that is it's about time.

[CheshireCat2]

04:16 PM on 11/13/2008

Or was just how gullible and elitist that the Liberals are, they knew it would sell? It obviously faked out the reporter and you know what or who he was.

And it was a big hit here.

[wagthedog1001]

02:50 AM on 11/14/2008

So your point is that Sarah's... what? Have you heard the interview with "Nicolas Sarkozy?"

LMAO

[PatRyan]

03:20 PM on 11/13/2008

Re the 57 state thingy, There are 50 states, 6 territorie­s and two primaries in Washington state (a caucus follwed weeks later by a primary).

So not 57 states, but 57 contests. An understand­able error that is still thrashing around the Pinheadosp­here as if it were actually..­.......er.­.......som­ething or other.

[Myshkin57]

03:38 PM on 11/13/2008

And there are two in Texas... the prima-cauc­uses.

[wantthetruth]

03:18 PM on 11/13/2008

If you want some real humor. Check out the Eisenstadt blog.
If you read back some months you will see just how many "credible" news sources were taken for a ride.

[Myshkin57]

03:37 PM on 11/13/2008

I agree with you that the media is something of a joke. But, if Cameron got fooled, it wasn't by this guy.

[wantthetruth]

04:35 PM on 11/13/2008

Does it matter if Cameron got fooled? Everyone here thinks Faux news is a joke.
The funny story is not about Fox, it is about MSNBC, Huffpo, DailyKos, Keith O., and all the others who took the bait.
Read the Eisenstadt blog...too funny!

[DeeW]

03:03 PM on 11/13/2008

2 things, first this is what happens when news outlets rely on word of mouth stories and don't actually have investigat­ive jounalists like they used to. And 2nd ... why did we all believe this? Well, we all believed it because it was believable which is a huge problem for Palin.

[LightningJoe]

06:29 PM on 11/13/2008

Not only is it believable­, it's likely enough true as well. Sarah says she can see Russia from her back porch (NOT). She denies wanting to ban library books on behalf of her church -- despite credible accounts that thats EXACTLY what she did. She says she's never BEEN in a Nieman Marcus or Sachs -- that a fortune in clothes were bought for her and her family by staff, without her knowledge. (But they fit her sOoo well, didn't they, for never having been tried on, before purchase?)

This is the woman who went "around the world" two months ago, for a dozen twenty-min­ute visits with heads of state, but never said more to them, than "greetings from Alaska," a sentiment they could buy on a souvenir.

She didn't know what a Vice President did, before she was asked to become one; and a month later, she was still thinking she would be "in there making legislatio­n" with the Senate, if she won the seat.

This is a deeply ignorant woman, who thinks the world will roll over for her, if she's golly-gee enough and willing to "jump right in" and pick it up on the fly. Talk about arrogance, to accuse Barack Obama of being inexperien­ced!

In my mind, it's only too probable that she thought (along with thirty percent of Americans) that Africa is the name of a country.