CNN producer Peter Hamby breathlessly reports that Sarah Palin is so ignorant of Washington that she’s promising to do something that Barack Obama has already done. Here’s the lede of the story (emphasis added):

Sarah Palin likes to tell voters around the country about how she “put the government checkbook online” in Alaska. On Thursday, Palin suggested she would take that same proposal to Washington.

But here’s the quote on which he based that lede (ephasis added):

“We’re going to do a few new things also,” she said at a rally in Cedar Rapids. “For instance, as Alaska’s governor, I put the government’s checkbook online so that people can see where their money’s going. We’ll bring that kind of transparency, that responsibility, and accountability back. We’re going to bring that back to D.C.”

Hamby then gleefully announces:

There’s just one problem with proposing to put the federal checkbook online – somebody’s already done it. His name is Barack Obama.

But it is clear from Palin’s comment that she was not talking about any specific transparency proposal, only the goal of transparency and accountability. But when a journalist is in the back pocket of the other side, it’s hard to see that.

To add insult to injury, CNN appends this to the report (emphasis added):

UPDATE: A campaign spokesperson insisted that Palin was referring not to that specific proposal, but rather to “that kind of transparency in general.”