We’ve now reached the point where gossip sites are forced to debunk rumors being circulated uncritically by the mainstream media.

Keep updating, Charlie. No rest for the weary.

KURTZ: But if it’s a “Lifetime Movie of the Week,” Lola, then it seems to me that it’s a very mixed picture from the point of view of a ticket that is trying to get, you know, John McCain and Sarah Palin elected president and vice president of the United States. In other words, it’s great to be a celebrity, and she’ll get a book deal out of it and maybe her own television show, but does it undercut the effort to paint her as a serious, reform-minded governor?

[Lola] OGUNNAIKE: And that’s what she is going to have to guard against. I mean, McCain has been really good about painting Obama as this lightweight, using the word “celebrity” as a pejorative. They don’t want to have a boomerang effect. They don’t want that to come back on Sarah Palin, and people say, yes, she looks good in a bikini clutching an AK-47, but is she equipped to run the country?

Kurtz, who still thinks Andrew Sullivan’s “right-leaning,” naturally didn’t know enough to correct her. Exit question: Can anyone explain to me why the crowd at the convention was chanting “NBC, NBC” during the part of Palin’s speech about media smears when it’s CNN that’s been the worst offender? It was CNN that went after Palin for deserting baby Trig before the pick was even announced; it was CNN that gave Ed Schultz a platform to call her a bad mother; it was CNN that casually mentioned the rumor about Bristol Palin being Trig’s real mother, earning them an on-air rebuke from Bill Bennett; it was CNN that thought it’d be fun to air a clip by an Obama supporter goofing on McCain for allegedly checking Palin out at the podium; and of course, now it’s CNN that’s taken by the bikini ‘shop.

Oh, and of course it’s CNN that’s complained the loudest about GOP criticism of the media.

So I say again, why is MSNBC bearing the brunt of conservative animosity? Is it just a sort of lifetime achievement award for newly demoted demagogue Edward R. Olbermann?

Update: The bikini photoshop was debunked almost a full week ago.

Update: More for Charlie: Trig Trutherism at the very fair and balanced Us Weekly.