One of the really fascinating things about the ongoing Palin rumors is that someone will try to write a Palin rumor that is obviously over the top, as satire — only to see it reported by the legacy (“lamestream”) media as fact.
So here’s an example. SuperTuesdayNews.com “reported”:
DALLAS, TX – Potential 2012 presidential candidate Sarah Palin says that if she were president, she would deport pop star Christina Aguilera for botching a portion of The Star-Spangled Banner during her performance at Super Bowl XLV. Making an appearance on Sean Hannity’s radio program on Monday, Palin pointedly criticized Aguilera’s gaffe, and called her out for exhibiting ‘diva behavior.’
“Quite frankly, Sean, public figures must be held accountable for what they say,” explained Palin. “Here’s another case of an airhead diva going on TV, running her mouth off, sounding like a fool. She doesn’t understand something so basic about America, yet we’re supposed to tolerate her diva behavior? Americans can see through that, Sean.”
There are several little issues about this, of course: Christina Aguilera is from Staten Island, the President can’t actually deport people, the Hannity interview didn’t happen, and SuperTuesdayNews, in the “About Us” page, says clearly:
Super Tuesday News is a satirical news site launched in January 2011 to lampoon the events, circumstances and players of the 2012 United States presidential election.
Okay, it’s not The Onion. But apparently it was convincing enough. The first two commenters at the satire site clearly fell for it. Us Weekly ran with the story. (They’ve since pulled it and are whistling and looking innocent, but there are screen captures.)
The most astonishing part is that the legacy media does this again and again. You’d think they’d learn.
Actually, that’s the second most astonishing part. The most astonishing part is the way people hang on to the rumors long after they’re debunked. For example, a few days ago I mentioned another Palin rumor that was around, that Todd Palin had had himself a massage of the scandalous sort, and was implicated by the Anchorage Police in a prostitution ring. If you follow the link, you’ll find that the Anchorage PD announced in no uncertain terms that the story was false. The sources for the story turn out to be the same Jesse Gryphen who has been pushing the “Trig is Bristol’s baby” thing for years. The Anchorage PD even went so far as of make a particular point about the Enquirer’s “sources”:
*“Bloggers” have had no access to the evidence seized so their linking of evidence in police custody to any other person is incorrect.
And sure enough, the same guy shows up with a link to an interview on this, in a comment on that previous Palin rumor tattle.
Someone, please, slip him an anonymous tip on Palin saying nasty things about Chistina.
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