Lola Ogunnaike, the entertainment reporter for CNN's "American Morning," repeated as fact the Internet myth of Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin clad in a bikini and holding a machine gun. The photo has been debunked as doctored.
Ogunnaike made the statement on CNN's "Reliable Sources," and host Howard Kurtz let her spread the rumor further without correcting the record. It wasn't the only outlandish commentary from Ogunnaike. She also characterized the Palin family as "ripped from the script of a 'Desperate Housewives' plot line." Even worse, she defended the widely renounced US magazine's sensational story about Alaska Gov. Palin. Matthew Felling, the anchor KTVA-TV in Anchorage, Alaska, rightly called the story "an application of bush-league journalism with a Yankee-stadium story," but Ogunnaike said, "They actually did some pretty good journalism there." She also refuted Kurtz' suggestion that tabloid coverage of Palin has "dragged the mainstream [media] down." She said news and gossip can "exist at the same party looking fabulous in our own right." Kurtz' reply: "I'm gonna check my wardrobe." -- K. Daniel Glover