The Case Of The Diamond Dildo

Mickey Kaus writes on Slate:

It’s just like porn-centric lone L..A. blogger Luke Ford, writing about new arrival David Beckham, to recklessly report:

On another occasion, while Victoria was expecting their third child, Beckham spent $1.8 million for a diamond-encrusted sex toy with matching 16-carat diamond necklace. [E.A.]

Too good to check–and bloggers don’t have to check, do they? It turns out Mrs. Beckham has now denied the tidbit:

"It isn’t true," Victoria said, her voice calm and measured. "We do buy each other nice things," she admitted, but some things get exaggerated. "I don’t have a diamond-encrusted vibrator."

Indeed, a quick NEXIS search brings up a lot of stories citing a man who was selling $1.8 million diamond-encrusted vibrators speculating that Beckham was thinking about buying one. Anyone with any professional journalistic experience would view with suspicion subsequent reports that might have Beckham actually purchasing the thing.

Maybe pompous L.A.Times media critic Tim Rutten had a point about those "gossip sheets, whether online or on slick paper, that continue to proliferate like informational vermin." The Pulitzer-winning Times would never . … Hello? What? Really? The bogus Becks vibrator story didn’t appear in Luke Ford’s blog at all? It appeared …well, here. … P.S.: And it hasn’t been corrected. … [via Steve Smith] 1:15 A.M.