Sarah Palin in OnTheIssues Fact Checking

On Foreign Policy: FactCheck: Never said, "I can see Russia from my house"

McCain's decision to appoint Sarah Palin as his vice presidential nominee & her own utterances on foreign policy ("I can see Russia from my house") made it all but impossible to claim that he was the cautious, conservative candidate.

Is that a fair criticism? The FactCheck says NO, it's unfair and biased.

The author seems to be quoting Palin verbatim, as an indicator of her inexpertise. But every journalist knows that Palin never actually said that phrase--it was uttered by the actress Tina Fey as a spoof of Palin on "Saturday Night Live." Palin actually said:

They're our next-door neighbors, and you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska, from an island in Alaska.

Palin was pointing out that Alaska borders Russia, and she is correct. It's fair to mock Palin for ignorance based on misstatements she actually said--but it's unfair to use THAT phrase to mock Palin, since Palin never said it.