Fox News Applies Its Patented Crowd-Inflating Technique to Sarah Palin

Fox News does not learn: The network is claiming that the crowd at a Sarah Palin event today is "huge," and showing footage from what is almost certainly a McCain-Palin rally as evidence.

Last week, the Daily Show caught Sean Hannity passing off old tea-party footage as representative of the (much smaller) crowd at recent protest against healthcare. Today, it's Think Progress pointing out the sleight-of-video: These shots of what is allegedly "HAPPENING NOW"—"Sarah Palin continuing to draw huge crowds" according to "video just coming into us"—really look like campaign rallies. Especially the people waving McCain-Palin signs and wearing McCain-Palin shirt. Could crazed Palinites have pulled their "Country First" signs and campaign T-shirts out of the closet in an effort to relive the glory days of '08? Yes, they could have. Does Fox deserve the benefit of the doubt on this score? No. It does not.

Also, the footage features Palin wearing her "up-do," which she seems to have abandoned of late, to judge by her appearances on Oprah and Sean Hannity: