Mainstream Media Contributor Falls for Fake Sarah Palin, Al-Jazeera Story (And Now It's Been Scrubbed)

Suzi Parker (southernscribe.com)

After parting ways with Fox News Channel, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin will continue to reach out to Americans as a contributor for Al Jazeera English, according to Washington Post contributor Suzi Parker.

“Late last week Al Jazeera America announced the former vice-presidential candidate would be joining their news network,” she writes.

There’s just one problem with Miss Parker’s “scoop”: It’s 100 percent bogus. Her entire story is based on a fake report from the parody website The Daily Currant, the same site responsible for the “Ann Coulter Refuses to Board Airplane With Black Pilot” story that sparked so much hatred from the left.

Apparently, it didn’t occur to the author of “Sex in the South: Unbuckling the Bible Belt” that a “news” site with stories such as “Mugabe Bans the Color White,” “Cory Booker Gives CPR to Random Person at Super Bowl,” “Glenn Beck Calls 911 After Accidentally Eating Halal Pizza,” and “Vladimir Putin Kills Grizzly Bear With Bare Hands” could, you know, be fake.

But perhaps having filed the Palin story under “Too Good To Check,” Parker embraced the idea of the former vice presidential candidate moving to al-Jazeera and dove headfirst into explaining the dangers of mixing celebrity with politics.

“The Sarah Palin Story is a cautionary tale about what can happen when politics and celebrity meet,” she writes.

"Fame, not legislating, is clearly what Palin still seeks. She had to be at least a bit giddy last month when actress Julianne Moore won a Golden Globe for her portrayal of Palin in the HBO miniseries 'Game Change,'" she adds.

She goes on to cite Palin’s “interview” with The Daily Currant.

“As you all know, I’m not a big fan of newspapers, journalists, news anchors and the liberal media in general,” Palin supposedly said. “But I met with the folks at Al-Jazeera 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.”

Parker couldn't pass up the opportunity to mock Palin.

“Ironically, Fox News recently called Al Jazeera ‘an anti-American terror mouthpiece,’” Parker notes. “Bless her heart, is Palin trying her best to stay relevant while her 15 minutes fades into the political history books?”

What’s odd about the Parker SNAFU, as Mediaite’s Noah Rothman notes, is that her story includes numerous links and citations. So how did she miss the fact that The Daily Currant is a gag website during her research?

Anyway, it wasn't long before the Internet informed Parker and the Washington Post that their story was less than accurate. They quickly issued a "correction" and scrubbed any mention of The Daily Currant. But, you see, once something goes on the Internet, it's forever:

And this is what it looks like now:

Final Thought: Parker shouldn’t feel too bad for playing the sap. After all, it’s not like she’s the first person to fall flat on her face over a fake Sarah Palin story. MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow beat her to the punch a long, long time ago.

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