AGN admits error

The Amarillo Globe-News admitted today that the paper was "totally batcrap wrong and stupid, stupid, stupid" as reporters Joe Chapman and Karen D. Smith pounded themselves on the forehead like Chris Farley in an old Saturday Night Live sketch.

Or something like that.

Our fave newspaper reported yesterday that city commissioners' health insurance had cost the city $105,200 since 2000. Panhandle Truth Squad immediately exposed that headlie based on the Globe-News own reporting. And today the paper acknowledged that even the story itself had been wrong and that the actual figure was more like $13,600.

By the time the local newspaper is through with this story, the insurance will be uncovered to actually cost the city less than I have paid in library fines for the same period. Tell you what: I'll continue failing to return books on time, and we'll just forget the whole thing.

While it is nice that the Globe-News placed the corrected story almost as prominently as the initial stories, some questions still remain. How did this issue suddenly come up in the midst of a contested city election? City Manager Alan Taylor has stated that some candidates were planning on making this a campaign issue. Can the Globe-News assure us that they were not misled or used by any of these candidates, whoever they may be? And can they prove they did not conspire with any of these candidates to try to steal the election?

SPACEDARK