NEW YORK (AP) – MSNBC was the victim of a hoax when it reported that an adviser to John McCain had identified himself as the source of an embarrassing story about former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, the network said Wednesday.

David Shuster, an anchor for the cable news network, said on air Monday that Martin Eisenstadt, a McCain policy adviser, had come forth and identified himself as the source of a Fox News Channel story saying Palin had mistakenly believed Africa was a country instead of a continent.

Eisenstadt identifies himself on a blog as a senior fellow at the Harding Institute for Freedom and Democracy. Yet neither he nor the institute exist; each is part of a hoax dreamed up by a filmmaker named Eitan Gorlin and his partner, Dan Mirvish, the New York Times reported Wednesday.

Whatever happened to making a quick phone call to at least verify that the institute exists and that the person names is employed to such institute?

Oh, that’s right, you don’t need to let such things get in the way of rushing to air with a good anti-Palin story… after all, if it says Bad Things about Palin, it must be true, right?

Hannity is right… journalism died this year.