Filmmakers Behind Fake McCain Adviser Discuss Tricking The Media (VIDEO)

Dan Mirvish and Eitan Gorlin appeared on CNN's Reliable Sources to discuss how they tricked the media by creating a fake McCain adviser named Martin Eisenstadt. The duo were able to fool such reputable news organizations as The New York Times, The New Republic, and, most famously, MSNBC, whose anchor David Schuster reported live on air that Martin Eisenstadt had been identified as the McCain adviser who leaked that Sarah Palin was unaware Africa is a continent. Schuster quickly retracted the report. (Fox News' Carl Cameron was the first to report on the Palin-Africa story, and he has said that his source was not the phony Eisenstadt.)

Watch a clip from Reliable Sources.

Comments

[majorteddy]

Hold your butt wise guys, you have one coming. wait until you make your next film.

[jennyquatro]

Cool hat - rather Robin Hoodish. :P

And how do we know THIS isn't a hoax. Palin & McCain made themselves look bad enough without any help. Call me cynical, I prefer pragmatic, but I'm not sure I even buy these guys' story.

[research]

The Fact Remains:

Palin Thought Africa is a Country.

[hughbetcha]

Well South Africa is a country so she is half right.

[11907281]

Another Palin apologist I see, I hope you get your way in 2012.

[research]

You Mean

Palin is a Half Wit?

[jdh45]

Here is the issue..If you were going to make someone look bad why would you choose the" Africa is a country" story? Kind of abstract don't you think?
Why not something that really hits home like the fact that Palin thought that Georgia,Alabama and Mississippi were in South America!!! I guess that is just too believeable.

[ceasespin]

The "Martin Eisenstadt" hoax is exactly the type of journalism that would have received a low news quality rating, alerting the public that it should be taken with a grain of salt.
The news quality rating system that we are proposing measures the level of professional journalistic ethical rigor associated with each news story. It then requires the broadcaster to label the news segment with the rating during the broadcast. The editors of the Eisenstadt story might have given the story a rating of anywhere from 0-2 stars out of 5 if it failed to meet critical criteria. It is doubtful it could have received ratings in the 3-5 range.
The only way we're going to bring a news quality rating system to the market is for folks to learn more about it at http://FixNewsNow.org or http://CeaseSPIN.org

sign the FCC News Quality Rating System petition
A News Quality Rating System will improve journalism using an anti-censorship, non-partisan approach that doesn't raise constitutional issues.
check it out http://FixNewsNow.org

[bascombe]

another proof that the networks, especially cable, don't care about anything factual, only the ratings.

CNN = Faux Noise light and they want to pretend, on a show hosted by a rightwing operative, that they care about journalistic integrity. I remember a certain glenn beck having a show on CNN.

Hhhhhmmmm....

[boing007]

Forget all that. Roald Dahl's James and the Giant Peach was on Palin's list of banned books. Mark Twain too.

[wagthedog1001]

Oh, come on. Most media comes out sounding like SNL or Mad Magazine after the third or fourth telling. Half the time I can't tell whether stories are supposed to be true or not, especially on cable TV.

As many have cited, stories are hashed and rehashed by lazy editors and reporters who don't bother to do more than look online for things. Then the unabashedly add their own opinions which messes the truth up more and more.

The fact that everybody believed Palin's misunderstanding of Africa says more about how believable that story was than it does about the people who reported it. And it was believable because we had already seen the TV and radio interviews that no one created but herself.

This is just funny all the way around.

[BCubedReg]

You're absolutely correct. The only reason anyone even believed Palin did not know Africa was a continent or a country is due to her previous stellar grasp of civics, U. S policy, and world affairs evident in her interviews with the media.

This is a non-story.

[bascombe]

idiots reporting lies about idiots. As you said, funny whether true or false.

[nick1936]

Why am I not surprised they make up the story as they want it to play both Left and Right

[hildutus]

The media are so concerned now with spending less money (or none at all -- witness iReporters), that they will accept anything from a "source" rather than going out and investigating. Many on these pages have criticized them for simply copying White House news reports and have assumed from that behavior that they were pro-Bush. No, they're just cheap, and they'll do the same for Obama or for anyone else who'll save them a penny.
The pity is that this latest trick will not change their behavior; it will only get the Left and Right to yell at each other louder. And that's precisely what the media want, because it's cheap and easy to report.

[bascombe]

they have been doing it for some time. they are trying to rescue their credibility.

too late!

[ReasonableBill]

See if the Republicans do it, it is ok. They are the Party of the rightous "Christians".

[RationalDubSteppa]

LOL... indeed!!

[BannedInBoston]

And then there was the spoofer who called Palin and convinced her it was French President Nicolas Sarkozy. She DID fall for that one!

[shelobo]

One of Palins 'spokespersons' also said she misquoted the africa story,so someone who was inside the McCain campaign WAS telling the true facts ,and I doubt that there was a fake doing the leaking,too much was facts and now McCains people want others to believe there was a fake insider.I think it was a real person and now McCains and Palins handlers want to cover up that leak.

[dspencer3491]

lmao. this is hillarious. I don't think it would surprise anyone if this was true or not, I mean just look at those interviews she did during the campaign for one example. This does however so extreme lack of credibility of our media here in the U.S; how irresponsible to air a report without investigating it further.

[stargazer13]

they don,t dig any more that,s for sure

[Budokan]

Making a monkey of corporate media is like a fish swimming. It's expected behavior.

[diogeron]

So, what's the real story? The Fox reporter says it was true. Prove it. I am capable of believing either, given Palin's ignorance about other things, but if she didn't say that, somebody needs to make sure this doesn't become another "Al Gore invented the internet" urban legend.

[bascombe]

maybe just get stories from other sources than the media who never got anything right, always trots out the worst of the liars and misinformed to give you the 'facts' or to skew your opinion against your own best interest.

example, the "center-right" country these a$$wholes live in.

considering what was done to Al Gore, I'm glad they got one of their own for a change.

Which sounds worse, "I can see Russia from my house" or "africa is a country" ?
the truth of the first - remember that the republicans screamed from the rafters that it made her more qualified than Obama and the media echoed this meme, uncontested - makes the second quite believable.

journalism has been replaced by an echo-chamber for republican lies. it's good that the wheels are falling off.

[peterg76]

Like fooling the media is hard.