Rich People Who Need Drivers: Another DUI Story

I picked this picture of McDonald only because I think terezowens.com is the 

funniest thing ever. 

After an unforgettable season for the San Francisco 49ers' defense, the off-season thus far has been one that the organization would likely rather forget. On Jan. 28, rookie Pro-Bowl  defensive end/linebacker Aldon Smith finished up his record-setting season by getting arrested on suspicion of driving while under the influence. Yesterday (Wednesday, Feb. 9), Smith's defensive line-mate was arrested after a traffic stop on a warrant connected to his 2010 DUI arrest.

There is more to the story than the SF Chronicle reported, according to SBNation. They reported McDonald had been arrested due to confusion within the DA's office. That 2010 DUI arrest has already been handled, with McDonald convicted and made to complete a mandatory first-offenders class. The warrant that got McDonald arrested on Wednesday morning was issued in August of 2011 because had not provided proof that he had completed the class. After a few hours at a police station in Sunnyvale, McDonald appears to have worked this out, telling CSN Bay Area's Matt Maiocco that he had completed the class and submitted proof.

It appears to be a clerical error.

That does not mean that the story didn't out. It did, and splash headlines across the internet and in local print media read something like "49ers McDonald Arrested on DUI Warrant." Those headlines weren't false, just missing some bits of the story. Most outlets have issued updates to include the more detailed info about the warrant.

With one notable exception: the San Francisco Chronicle, the Bay Area's leading daily newspaper, does not appear to have published anything with the new information. That's not the only reason the 49ers PR department should be scrambling right now.

Google Ray McDonald. Here, I did it for you. A quick glance at the headlines?

The class? Mentioned twice. The mistake behind the warrant: Mentioned never.

Not only is the apparently erroneous nature of the warrant not mentioned, but the far more exciting (and infinitely more misleading) "Another San Francisco 49ers Defensive Player Arrested" is written in multiple forms.

You can practically hear the pants tightening around the giant erections that the local media is getting from this story. It's really no big story, but they can splash those kind of headlines across their site/paper and get hits/sell ads without committing libel. By doing this, they have created a feeling of "Oh shit, here we go again" among 49ers fans when they see the headlines. The newspapers feel the same way about it as fans, except with a different inflection. It's more like...

Oh shit! Here we go again! Yaaay!

And since most people only read the headlines or the first paragraph of what pops up on their RSS feeds (I don't know how people get news now. Projected onto their eyelids? Either way they don't pay attention after a few seconds of any given story.), what do you think the topic of discussion around the water coolers of San Francisco is? Certainly not the inherent issues presented by a legal system that can accidentally issue an arrest warrant.