One year after being exposed as an invented character supported by an elaborate Internet hoax, Martin Eisenstadt has resurfaced in a video supporting his forthcoming book–complete with Amazon Kindle cameos and cardboard cutouts.
In the heat of the 2008 Presidential election, two filmmakers created Eisenstadt as an imaginary political adviser, posing as a John McCain staffer and fooling reporters with exaggerated tales of Sarah Palin’s problems. The NY Times unraveled the hoax here, but as the video reveals, a book attributed to this imaginary character will arrive in October–“I Am Martin Eisenstadt:
One Man’s (Wildly Inappropriate) Adventures with the Last Republicans.”
Here’s more from the publisher’s website: “[W]e heard that he was a fraud, a fake, and that Martin Eisenstadt didn’t exist. Maybe he doesn’t. But in a world where ‘news’ can spread like wildfire on the Internet and a hoax can tell you more about politics than the facts, Martin Eisenstadt–whose blog and think tank fooled the world–has something to tell us. With the savviness of Primary Colors and the playfulness of Forrest Gump, his book is a mix of political intrigue, campaign-trail escapades, and cyberspace detective work.”