Flutterby™! : Duped

A number of people have been pointing to NY Times: A Senior Fellow at the Institute of Non-Existence, about how after Fox News(!?) reported that Sarah Palin didn't know Africa was a continent, not a country, a couple of guys created a (or used an already existing) fake McCain advisor named "Martin Eisenstadt" who took in MSNBC with his confirmation of the story.

Here's the thing: So far as I can tell, Sarah Palin has point blank admitted to the confusion, see the video at the Alaska Daily News, around 6:55:

"If there are allegations based on questions or comments I made in debate prep about NAFTA, about the continent versus the country when we talk about Africa there, then those were taken out of context."

The only fraud that the "Eisenstadt" guys are admitting to is to being the named source, not to the original rumor. This "create a straw man and discredit the strawman, thereby destroying discussion of the original topic" is a fairly common GOP tactic, and it looks like the NYTimes bought it.