Start with the screamer headline on ABC: GOV. SARAH PALIN WARNS WAR MAY BE NECESSARY IF RUSSIA INVADES ANOTHER COUNTRY (pant, pant). As it turns out, Palin seems to understand our NATO commitments better than MSM’er Charlie Gibson:

GIBSON: Would you favor putting Georgia and Ukraine in NATO?

PALIN: Ukraine, definitely, yes. Yes, and Georgia.

GIBSON: Because Putin has said he would not tolerate NATO incursion into the Caucasus.

PALIN: Well, you know, the Rose Revolution, the Orange Revolution, those actions have showed us that those democratic nations, I believe, deserve to be in NATO.

Putin thinks otherwise. Obviously, he thinks otherwise, but…

GIBSON: And under the NATO treaty, wouldn’t we then have to go to war if Russia went into Georgia?

PALIN: Perhaps so. I mean, that is the agreement when you are a NATO ally, is if another country is attacked, you’re going to be expected to be called upon and help.

By the way, Biden also advocates adding Ukraine and Georgia to NATO.

Next comes the religion question. Gibson, who should know better than relying on Associated Press for any kind of factual information, asked her about her “task from God” comment regarding the Iraq war, which the AP misreported. It’s pretty bad when the Huffington Post quotes a conservative accurately but the vaunted largest new gathering organization in the world botches it, probably intentionally.

In reality, Palin was, as she told Gibson, praying that the United States was on God’s side, not that God was on the U.S.’s side. But that’s one nuance that the famously nuanced left-wing press can never fathom.

UPDATE: To show how easily the MSM, like Gibson above, can be hoodwinked into believing misrepresented quotes and even total fabrications, check out this Maureen Dowd column that unaccountably uses the fact that dinosaurs existed longer than 4,000 years ago. I heard the same thing from actor Matt Damon last night on television and wondered what the heck he was talking about. Turns out it was a hoax post about something Palin supposedly said, but he, and Dowd, bought it hook, line and sinker. And it was as bogus as AP’s transcription of Palin’s “task from God” quote.

MORE: When the MSM believes the MSM then the MSM becomes so confused they think they’re the ones who are right:

Later, many conservative blogs called out Charlie Gibson for demanding Gov. Palin answer for something she did not say regarding the War in Iraq being a task from God. However, I was struck by the number of journalists who, despite the Googles at their fingertips, framed her remark as a change in her position, even though it was Gibson who had his facts wrong.