Puerile Press: Trashing The Cheerleaders

The blogosphere is awash with posts like this one: Carolina Panthers Cheerleaders Arrested for Bathroom Sex. The MSM isn't much better. A search for "cheerleaders" on Google News returned almost 700 articles as of 12:40 pm ET, including reports from such mavens of American cheerleading as the Xinhua News Agency, the Hindustan Times and the the Sydney [Australia] Morning Herald. The frenzy is so high that the Carolina Panthers web site has reportedly been crashed by the voyeurs.

The problem is, though, that all of these reports have almost no connection to reality.

First, the cheerleaders were not arrested for having sex in the bathroom. Thomas is charged with misdemeanor battery for striking a woman and with "giving a false name and causing harm to another," a third-degree felony. Keathley was charged with two misdemeanors, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. No one has been charged with anything remotely related to sex.

Second, the story that they were having sex is almost certainly BS as well. The actual facts -- which have been available from the outset but largely ignored -- were reported yesterday in the Tampa Tribune (albeit in paragraph 10 of a 15 paragraph story:

Jennifer Chaconas, who said she was in the bar at the time, disputed the pair were having sex. Chaconas, 29, said she and a friend were waiting in line to use the restroom when others became agitated because two stalls were out of order and two women were sharing a stall.

The other women shook the stall door, saying things such as, "What are you doing in there, having sex?" Chaconas said.

At the time, the woman later identified as Thomas appeared so drunk that she "couldn't stand right" and slumped against the stall, Chaconas said. Keathley stood on the toilet to look over the top of the door and said something such as, "We have an issue."

Holden said Monday that she heard moaning but "couldn't tell what was going on."

The true story is almost certainly prosaic: Thomas was throwing up and her friend was helping her. But that's not news, is it?