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

[Westof405]

I don't really understand why anyone is so upset at these guys. They have made a valuable point-that you can't always believe what the media tells you because the media can be easily fooled by anyone intent on doing so.

Look at the Iraq war-Judith Miller (NYT), Chalabi, Curveball, Colin Powell, W, Cheney and the rest of the Bushies all mislead us into believing Saddam had WMD, which had far greater consequences than a Sarah Palin spoof.

A simple Google or Yahoo search would have turned up that Martin Eisenstadt and his Harding Institute were fake, but MSNBC was in such a hurry to break the story, the didn't take five minutes to check the facts. In the age of the Internet, there is no excuse. The website looks pretty genuine, but come on, how many think tanks sell souvenirs? I've been to Rand and although they do have a bookstore, I'm pretty sure they aren't selling lingerie and thongs.

[loonwalk]

I second truthiness, So we're supposed to think that a site like 'the onion' invented the fake leaker (of Palin's stupidity on two points of basic knowledge) and inept press people picked it up as fact. Then, we're supposed to dis-remember the facts supporting Palin's 3 month long demonstration of mindlessness and only recall that the last gaff about Africa and NAFTA were phony. Hm. Have I got it?

[Johnagain]

I can't help but agree. If there is one thing that this whole fake McCain advisor thing has done is take attention away from the long previous string of Palin gaffs. This smacks of the phony letter presented as evidence of Bush's AWOL status in the ANG. The letter was a forgery, but the story was still true. Bush was AWOL. The forgery story all but overshadowed that fact. I smell a rat here, whose name is Karl Rove.

[iranter]

in a era of "Punk'd" as entertainment, we deserve this crap.

[PhilipTaylor]

Now we need Media Virus Scanning Software to detect and remove these destructive Viruses invented by people who have nothing productive and useful to do with their lives!

[jonthebru]

Frankly, we should hold Martin Eisenstadt and his creators in high esteem. Consider Colon Powell at the UN, or that jerk who stated that the Soldiers would be welcomed with flowers in Iraq; or all the rest of the lies that got us to the chop suey mess we are in... trickle down economics, or lies about deregulation. You may go way back to "whats good for General Motors is good for America", yes someone actually said that. So following the logic, if GM goes into bankruptcy its good for America.

Face it, the rich get richer and the stupider get stupider.
I personally never thought I would follow the words of economists in the news. None of those people actually know what the heck to do about where we are at, its like choosing by throwing darts at a board with choices marked on it, hey give it a try, it might work.

[truthynesslover]

So they played a joke on the media and created a fake "source".T­hat doesnt change the original leak about Palin or the truth behind it.

[Pulemerci]

Actually it does. Was there actually a source of this gaffe? If so, who was it? I tend to take stories like this with a grain of salt. I knew the media was in the tank for Obama and didn't care for Governor Palin (did Katie Couric ever ask Obama what his news sources were or did she correct Joe Biden when he said that FDR was POTUS when the market crashed in 29' and then went of TV?). Therefore, it doesn't surprise me that they didn't vet this story or it's alleged source.

[Tituba]

Ah my dear Pulemerci.

There was no need to ask Obama about news sources, what he knows shows. About Biden, having him puting FDR on TV did not surprised anyone. We expect his gaffes, we're used to them since Palin was in second grade. These are two guys that have been in the public eye for way more than Palin has been. To tell the truth, as much as I despise that project of a woman, I never bought the "Africa" gaffe. If she wasn't even able to mention the Wat-Su Valley Frontiersman, Wasilla local newspaper, are we supposed to believe that she was going to be able to mention Africa as a country or continent? She proved that she cannot think on her feet. And this is a MUST for any politician at the national level. What is even more astonishing is that this person allegedly has a degree in journalism. And I say allegedly because I haven't been able to substantiate this assertion. Meanwhile, I was able to confirm that McCain graduated from a military school with the rank # 694 in a class of 699 cadets; and that Obama and Biden are both J.D. or Juris Doctorae which means Doctor in Law.

[thismachinekillsfascists]

That the media was "in the tank" for Obama has been debunked time and time again.

Remember Ayers?

Remember Bill Wright?

Remember "Barack Osama"?

All Katie Couric did was to expose just how underqualified Palin was for VP. Whether they cared for her or not is irrelevant.

[Sanity01]

Do you honestly think that if the quote had been attributed to "The Messiah" that it would not have been double, tripple and quadrouple checked before airing it?

[truthynesslover]

Palin has shown herself to be the most incurious individual to run for public office.She makes bush look like a rhodes scholar.Is it sooo hard to believe the woman whos own kid was being sent to iraq she didnt know that there were sunni and shia hadnt read about the war??You think she knew africa was a continent?Ive gotta bridge ta sell ya!!

[loonwalk]

Wait a minute. How can we believe this either? I don't see a motive for the original prank but I see a motive for changing the folktale now.
Either way it is shameful and looks like an abuse or infraction of some law. I know if it had been me (a nobody), I'd probably be fighting for my life in court, not laughing about how I defrauded the press.

[GrkAm]

loon . . . Agreed! OBVIOUSLY I don't think it's a LOL moment.

[redneckliberalpostbush]

"I make my livin off the evenin news
Just gimme somethin, somethin I can use
People love it when you lose, they love dirty laundry
I could have been an actor but I wound up here
I just have to look good I don't have to be clear

Come and whisper in my ear Give us dirty laundry
Got the bubble headed bleach blonde comes on at 5
She can tell ya about the plane crash with a gleam in her eye
It's interestin when people die
Can we film the operation? Is the head dead yet?
The boys in the newsroom got a runnin bet. Get the widow on the set!

You don't really need to find out what's goin on.
You don't really need wanna know just how far it's gone
Just leave well enough alone

When it's said and done we haven't told you a thing
We all know that crap is king
Eat your dirty laundry
Don Henley luv that guy!

[GrkAm]

WOW! Everybody gets a good chuckle out this one, right? Fooled the MSM!! High fives, around! You are right on one point. Investigation into this ruse would have brought clarification that it was just a joke.

Lives and careers can be damaged from this type of deception, though. Dan Rather comes to mind from reporting on G. W. Bush's military career.

[redneckliberalpostbush]

GrkAm- that was back when the media was all gettin massages and stuff from the GOP and was cowed as hell, while Limbaugh ranted 24/7 and the nimrods believed the crap about the "left wing media bias" that we still hear today from Faux, Noonan, Coulter, and even WTF AL QUEDA!.
We all know GWB was a daddy's boy pilot and sometime fake soldier, just like mission accomplished. We all know it was a cop- out of Viet Nam, too. Rather was just attacked by the cult type atmosphere of the media back then. We all know the records are mostly bogus and "daddy's the CIA head" type reports anyway. Who the heck could sift through the BS in those doctored up records. Cudos to Rather for having cajones! And cudos to Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert for waking the failing, wimpy media up.

[dana94591]

This shows how desparate these media organizations are for talking heads!!!

[kellygrrrl]

the "fake" ones don't seem to be any more full of BS than the real ones, so what's the problem?
many of us have been called "Fake Americans" so we might as well get fake news.

[sjones66]

They're trying to trick the public into thinking that if they attribute the quote to a phony source, the quote is no longer true.

That's a clear jump in logic that doesn't hold up under examination, but then...the­y're counting on our lazy logic.

[army193]

(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.) We have a person at Fox that reported the story and now the persons that made hoax gets air time and the statement by Palin is lost in the wind. It's not called news it's entertainment news.....

[SupremeIdiot]

Reminds me of a call I was on.

There was a hostage situation with the swat team and all kinds of cops and media around.

I was one of the paramedics in the standby ambulance.

Shots rang out, the gunman shot himself and we went in to pronouce the body. Lot's of blood and brains.

As a joke, my partner and I put a sheet over our gear on the stretcher and went out to the ambulance and turned on the lights and sirens. We went back to our station but the news reported that we took a "victim" of the gunman to the hospital and even went so far as to describe where the "victim" was shot and their condition as reported by the hospital.

The media isn't biased either for liberals or conservatives but for ratings and ad revenue.

[Sanity01]

You better tell the media that. Half of them have already conceded that thier coverage was biased toward "The Messiah"

[tea in the harbor]

That's got to be the best argument against free speech I have ever seen. Our founders didn't put limitations on that right because they never considered that anyone would be so arrogant as to endanger our democracy for their own amusement. The press falling for it is an embarassment to them, but implementing such a plot shows so little regard for our system that these are voices who should never again be heard, and absolutely can not be trusted!

[HoraceOvidson]

Tricking the media. Boy, that's real hard. Right, Dan?

[bostongreen]

American democracy is a joke and these fellows showed us another reason why. Why should anyone have any regard for our system? You're defending a system that plunders and murders anyone that doesn't toe the line.

[max08]

tea in the harbor, It's the best argument for buyer-beware, not reducing free speech . Ordinary US citizens now have the means of verifying every contentious MSM report via the web. And if you aren't doing that, you're an idiot. Actually, I like three sources, or the info remains 'duly noted' until verified.

[Surprisingly, if you follow the three sources bit, you'll discover that a quarter of the so-called conspiracy theories are not theories at all, but genuine. The 'theory' part is the disinformation used to cover an event up, or the derisive ad hominem use of the term 'conspiracy theorist'.­]