CityBeat runs mea culpa — but buried

On December 5, as noted in the Reader, former City Attorney Mike Aguirre sued the publication CityBeat for libel. It had stated in a November 12 column that Aguirre claimed that Representative Scott Peters, while he was a councilmember, was the most culpable local official in the pension debacle "because he attended Duke University." This was a case of ridiculous telescoping. While he was city attorney, Aguirre had said Peters and then-Mayor Dick Murphy were most culpable in the pension mess because of their prestigious degrees and legal experience. And Murphy was considered most culpable — not Peters.

An official of CityBeat's parent company admitted to Aguirre that the statement was inaccurate, and promised to correct it. Today (December 16) CityBeat ran a "clarification" stating that the publication's columnist "was not implying that Aguirre believes that Peters was culpable in the scandal merely because he went to Duke." The statement was buried at the bottom of the November 12 column, now in the archives. This afternoon, Aguirre emailed the company official that under state law, any such correction has to run in "substantially as conspicuous a manner" as the offensive assertion.

So the lawsuit is still hanging fire.