Mayor Sam Gets Clowned By Fake Blog

NOTICE: Please click this link for an update to the following story. I am - for now - retracting this story and republishing the stories in question.

Why did I pull the two stories about Antonio Villaraigosa, Jr. It's quite simple. The story wasn't true. At least most of it wasn't.

I received the following late Wednesday night:

My name is Jacob Savage, and the original author of the post about antonio villaraigosa jr. It was a light-hearted jest at him because of his attendance at Princeton University. Because of my post, I have been asked to clear up any confusion regarding its intention. I've e-mailed gawker.com and other that have picked it up not to treat it like real news. We are an Ivy league version of the Onion, with sometimes real news to confuse.

A wannabe Phil Hendrie of blogs clowned the old, dead Republican mayor. Okay, I admit it. There certainly were elements of the story (primarily special treatment by law enforcement) that concerned me. It does bring up some good questions about how this and other blogs operate. However, perhaps not enough to change things as the good we get probably outweighs the occasional goof up like this.

As of this writing, Savage did not respond to my questions asking him to confirm if he was the person who posted the fake comments on Facebook posing as Antonio Villaraigosa, Jr.

Now it may be there are still elements of the story that are true. The only thing that would concern me is if AVJR got a pass from police for underage drinking. We have received conflicting emails from kids who said they were at the infamous beach party (which did occur as the photos show; the only thing in question is the availability of alcohol and the involvement of the police).

I still stand by the appropriateness of reporting a story like this. As I explained to Zuma Dogg on the phone and many of you on the blog its not unfair to expect that members of any elected official's family not get special treatment from the law. This applies to Michele Degladillo as much as it does to Antonio Villaraigosa, Jr. So even though yes, I was contacted by the Mayor's office, it was the email from Savage that prompted me to take it down - not the Mayor, not my buddy Zuma Dogg's brotherly attempts to counsel me or anything else.

We have enough trouble getting bad information organically we don't need it manufactured. Now lets get back to the real scandals and keep the heat on.

So, I'm ready for your slings and arrows.