Monday we handed out the FamousDC Golf Clap of the Week Award to the fictional character Martin Eisenstadt who posed as a senior McCain aide.  Turns out Martin, who was quoted throughout the election, duped a whole bunch of people, including dozens of bloggers.  But don’t worry blog stars, for all the claims that you guys are sloppy and move too quick to post items before vetting things like, um, the facts, don’t sweat it, so does the main stream media – including MSNBC, the LA Times and plenty of others.

The NY Times has the rest of the story, including a profile of the two men behind the Institute of Nonexistence.

But most of Eisenstadt’s victims have been bloggers, a reflection of the sloppy speed at which any tidbit, no matter how specious, can bounce around the Internet. And they fell for the fake material despite ample warnings online about Eisenstadt, including the work of one blogger who spent months chasing the illusion around cyberspace, trying to debunk it.  [these guys are good.]