This morning, Suzi Parker at the Washington Post published an article with the entirely unbiased headline “Sarah Palin tries to stay relevant.” Which may or may not be ironic, depending on your opinion of WaPo’s own relevance.
I didn’t read it, because it’s WaPo and I already know what they think of Palin, but apparently Ms. Parker made a bit of an oopsie. Here’s the correction running at the top of the piece right now:
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this post incorrectly reported that Sarah Palin had signed on as a contributor to the Al Jazeera America news network. The blogger cited a report on the Daily Currant Web site as the basis for that information without realizing that the piece was satirical.
Whoops. Here’s an excerpt from the “report” in question:
Just weeks after leaving Fox News, Sarah Palin is bouncing back by joining the fledgling Al Jazeera America news network as a host and commentator…
“As you all know, I’m not a big fan of newspapers, journalists, news anchors and the liberal media in general,” Palin said. “But I met with the folks at Al-JaJizzraa (sic) and they told me they reach millions of devoutly religious people who don’t watch CBS or CNN. That tells me they don’t have a liberal bias…”
Although no longer involved directly with the network, Gore endorsed Palin’s career move as a sign of Al Jazeera’s commitment to fairness and balance.
“Al Jazeera provides high-quality, intelligent coverage of important issues,” Gore said. “And more importantly, it’s backed by oil money. That means when you get paid…you really get paid.”
I can see why a WaPo reporter would be fooled. The story is ridiculous and assumes the worst about a conservative. “Ha ha, she said Al-JaJizzraa! I’ll bet she can see that from her house!”
I’m going to put on my Official Fact-Checker hat and declare this Daily Currant story: False But True. It may not be factually accurate, but it makes the correct people experience the correct emotions.
Good job, WaPo! See ya at the Pulitzers. I’ll be the one in the green Katy Perry dress.
(Hat tip: JWF)
P.S. John Hayward has more. “It’s really not that hard to lead mainstream media reporters, pundits, and editors into phony stories – just give them something that fits the ‘narrative’ they already believe in.”
P.P.S.
CORRECTION: Sarah Palin has not signed on with Al Jazeera America wapo.st/V4pT2G
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) February 12, 2013
Most embarrassing correction ever? At least Dewey actually ran against Truman…
P.P.P.S. I didn’t notice it at first, but based on the WaPo URL, Parker’s original headline was “Sarah Palin’s plan to reach millions of devoutly religious people through Al Jazeera.” Wow. So it wasn’t just an aside, it was the whole reason for the piece!
