Fake think tank fellow fools media, bloggers

The New York Times has a funny article about Martin Eisenstadt, a senior fellow at the Harding Institute for Freedom and Democracy and supposedly an adviser to John McCain. He’s been cited by MSNBC, the Los Angeles Times and many bloggers. But he also is fake, as are the Harding Institute and the TV interview clips of him on YouTube. It was all an elaborate spoof created by two guys who, sadly but accurately, say that their success reflects the shoddiness of media fact-checking. Said one of the spoofers: “With the 24-hour news cycle they rush into anything they can find.”