Today in the Quick Hits section the Daily Tar Heel printed a line suggesting Republican Party chairman Michael Steele “apparently spent lavishly at bondage-themed clubs while traveling.”
In addition to getting rid of attempts at vulgar humor on the editorial page, the Daily Tar Heel’s professionalism would also be enhanced by some fact checking. The actual story is that a contractor traveling with an RNC expense account spent $1,946 at a strip club. The staffer responsible for approving the receipts for the expense account has been fired.
Now, I understand Michael Steele won’t win any popularity contests with the Daily Tar Heel editorial staff (or with the Carolina Review staff for that matter). But there’s still an obligation to print basic factual information. Errors are understandable, especially in a college paper. Publishing slander is not.
To be fair, when "The Caller Daily" broke the story yesterday, they wrote:
"Once on the ground…Steele travels in style. A February RNC trip to California, for example, included a $9,099 stop at the Beverly Hills Hotel, $6,596 dropped at the nearby Four Seasons, and $1,620.71 spent [update: the amount is actually $1,946.25] at Voyeur West Hollywood, a bondage-themed nightclub featuring topless women dancers imitating lesbian sex."
http://dailycaller.com/2010/03/29/high-flyer-rnc-…
Later in the day, Caller Daily clarified that they never explicitly said that Mr. Steele personally visited the strip club. However, the language in the initial article definitely implied that Mr. Steele was there. I don't know when the Daily Tar Heel goes to press, but it seems a little unfair to DTH to totally blame them for the misrepresentation.