Today the mysterious minions, we're told, are insiders on Oprah Winfrey's show and whispered to the Drudge Report that the talk show queen, and Obama supporter, has banned Palin from appearing. That, of course, set off right-wing howls of protest. Oprah has responded, claiming Drudge's report has no merit, and that she simply isn't going to have any candidates on her program between now and Election Day.

At County Fair, we remain dubious of any Drudge exclusive that features unnamed sources because, frankly, we doubt that sources exist.

In fact, just once we'd love to see a Drudge scoop that was constructed completely around anonymous sources (the same sources who routinely produce too-good-to-be-true quotes) actually be confirmed in the real world. That way we wouldn't have the nagging suspicion that today's scoop was simply fed to Drudge by McCain allies who concocted the story (and the sources) as a way to pressure Winfrey into inviting Palin on her program.

Gawker calls out Drudge.