So apparently, CNN has tired of reporting news.  E! Entertainment television has, perhaps, shown them that rumors and gossip sell oh-so-much better — especially for that very important teenage girl demographic.

This weekend, a special group of reporters was dispatched to Alaska, charged with tracking down a story of extreme national import.  They “hit the ground running,” according to the reporter on the scene, to track down more information on hard-hitting rumor that Sarah Palin’s youngest child is actually the child of her oldest daughter, and that she, Sarah, was claiming the child as her own and raising it, in order to avoid embarrasment. 

Of course, this rumor didn’t actually come from a “source,” per se.  It had an originator, to be sure — but not anyone even remotely connected with the Palin family.  No, this “reliable” source — the person who had a CNN news team trekking all the way to Alaska — was a Leftist blogger on a vehemently partisan leftist blog site.  And one whose only evidence was a few photos and his personal opinion that Sarah Palin just didn’t “look pregnant.”

Bill Bennett, evidently the only person left on CNN with any class, took anchor Wolf Blitzer to task on this, as well as on their alternate story (when it turned out that the original rumor was proven false by the current actual pregnancy of Palin’s daughter, Wolf, et al decided to politicize it, and then blame Palin for it being politicized).  Wolf, however, smelled blood and wouldn’t have it. 

CNN claims to be the nation’s most trusted news source.  With garbage like this flooding their airwaves, however, I have to wonder how that could be.