A common symptom of Palin Derangement Syndrome is the humiliating tendency to fall for smack-you-in-the-face-obvious parodies. If it’s too good to be true, it’s news! Exhibit 13,982: The Washington Post’s Suzi Parker.

https://twitter.com/postpolitics/status/301330638676557825

Writing at the Post’s “She The People” blog, Parker sneered:

The Sarah Palin Story is a cautionary tale about what can happen when politics and celebrity meet. … Late last week Al Jazeera America announced the former vice-presidential candidate would be joining their news network. “As you all know, I’m not a big fan of newspapers, journalists, news anchors and the liberal media in general,” Palin told the Web site The Daily Currant. “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.”

Here’s a snippet from the “About” page of Parker’s source, The Daily Currant:

Q. Are your newstories real? A. No. Our stories are purely fictional. However they are meant to address real-world issues through satire and often refer and link to real events happening in the world

Sarah Palin to Al Jazeera? No. But a Washingotn Post blog was fooled by The Daily Currant into thinking so. http://t.co/RfSz6yFk — Eddie Scarry (@eScarry) February 12, 2013

Layers and layers of fact checkers: gullible Washington Post falls for parody story about Palin joining Al-Jazeera http://t.co/jSNJ0Prt — David Burge (@iowahawkblog) February 12, 2013

Even better than the WaPo falling for fake Palin-al Jazeera story is the tone of knowing condescension in the piece: http://t.co/vhwCBw0J — Garnet Fraser (@garnetfraser) February 12, 2013

After Twitter started buzzing about Parker’s flub, the Post quickly scrubbed the article of any reference to the Daily Currant.

REWRITE! "Sarah Palin’s plan to reach ‘millions of devoutly religious people’ through al-Jazeera" now "Sarah Palin tries to stay relevant" — David Burge (@iowahawkblog) February 12, 2013

The Post issued this correction: “An earlier version of this post incorrectly reported that Sarah Palin planned to contribute to the Al Jazeera America news network.”

Whoops!

Update:

.@suziparker Crikey, that "correction" is parody unto itself. Just can't force yourself to retract Palin-bashing snark. http://t.co/nacOcAJO — Michelle Malkin (@michellemalkin) February 12, 2013

Lame correction, @suziparker . Your bias makes you an easy target for satire. — Dana Loesch (@DLoesch) February 12, 2013

The best part about @suziparker getting punked by the Daily Currant is the smug avi of hers on Twitter. "Journalist" HAHAHAHA. — RB (@RBPundit) February 12, 2013

Suzi Parker: “Journalist.”

Update:

The “correction” has been revised.

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.

Uh oh. WaPo editors in their correction have demoted @suziparker from Journalist with a capital J to … blogger. http://t.co/1oZ8ivWC — Cuffy (@CuffyMeh) February 12, 2013

Update: WaPo finally tweets a correction. LOL:

CORRECTION: Sarah Palin has not signed on with Al Jazeera America http://t.co/3pyLxoZk — Washington Post (@washingtonpost) February 12, 2013

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