Since I'm blocked from commenting, I only want to point out that the hoax, which was reported on MSNBC and then retracted, was not about the McCain campaign worker who leaked some negative information about Palin.

The hoax was that the man who said he was the source of the leak doesn't exist.  There's a huge difference.  There is no Eisenstadt Group or Harding Institute for Freedom and Democracy.  He is a sock puppet who played a joke on the media.

This only proves that people rely too much on blogs and the internet.  I honestly don't care whether or not Sarah Palin knew that Africa is a continent.  I do know that Alaska's largest newspaper, the Anchorage Daily News, endorsed Obama and said she wasn't qualified.  I do know that many Republicans shared that view, including the Mayor of Fairbanks, Jim Whitaker.  Eagleburger said, "Given time, Palin would be "adequate."   When a former Republican Secretary of State states that someone isn't ready to serve in the Oval Office, why is that the fault of the MSM?

When Fox reported that an unknown source accused the Democrats of trashing flags after the convention and later reported they couldn't verify the source, I don't remember anyone here apologizing or saying Fox was unfair to target Obama. 

I do believe Gov Palin has been treated unfairly in many cases and have even defended her.  However, the story about the blogger isn't proof that the negative stories about Palin aren't true.  What's amazing to me is that there have been hundreds of vicious rumors spread about Obama for over a year.  Nobody who is defending Palin seems to feel they were mean-spirited or racist.  Yet anytime people criticize Palin it's because they're jealous or because she's a woman.  It was Palin who called Hillary Clinton a whiner for even mentioning sexism or accusing the media of being biased. 

By the way, it was Fox's Carl Cameron who first aired the story about Africa, not MSNBC.

CAMERON: "There was great concern in the McCain campaign that Sarah Palin lacked a degree of knowledgeability necessary to be a running mate, a vice president, and a heartbeat away from the presidency."

CAMERON: "We are told by folks that she didn’t know what countries were in NAFTA — the North American Free Trade Agreement. That’d be Canada, the U.S., and Mexico. We’re told that she didn’t understand that Africa was a continent, rather than a series — a country just in itself. "