From CNN, to Politico.com, to the rest of the mediawankosphere, everyone has mindlessly regurgitating the McCain talking point that the Palin pregnancy disclosure was made in response to "vicious rumormongering" by liberal blogs regarding Palin's recently born child.
Of course, as Nate at fivethirtyeight.com has already illustrated, this talking point makes absolutely no sense:
What does one thing -- the news of Bristol Palin's pregnancy -- really have to do with the other -- scurrilous rumors that were never pushed by any mainstream US media outlet, nor by anyone remotely connected to the Obama campaign? What -- the plan was to keep Bristol Palin's pregnancy a secret from us, until she was rushed to the hospital to deliver her child a week before Sarah Palin's inauguration?
It also happens to be false. The Palin disclosure had nothing to do with liberal blogs. The McCain campaign's hand was forced by the National Enquirer:
Make that 2-0 for David Perel. Fresh off his success with the John Edwards story, sources tell Radar that an aggressive 36-hour push by Perel's National Enquirer reporting team forced Alaska Governor and John McCain's vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin to announce that her 17-year-old daughter Bristol is pregnant, an announcement which effectively puts an end to the Internet rumor that Palin had faked her own pregnancy to cover up her daughter's. (Or does it? There are already conspiracy theories that this pregnancy is being faked to dispel the rumors that Trig, Palin's 4-month-old, is really Bristol's child. Kinda crazy, right?)
And anyone who thinks the National Enquirer is done with the story, well I have bridge to nowhere I'd like to sell you. The Enquirer is, as we speak, "flooding the zone" on this story. Further Palin revelations will come not from liberal bloggers or similar bete-noirs of the right, but rather from the Enquirer's now respected and feared reportorial staff, or perhaps from traditional media reporters who believe this to be an important story and don't want to let a tabloid clean their journalism clocks. . . again.