On Monday, the Cincinnati Enquirer published a story about Robert and Deanna Castellini being arrested on domestic violence charges. A day later, the story was pulled from the paper's website. Robert Castellini, as the original article's headline points out, happens to be the son of Cincinnati Reds owner Bob Castellini, and his lawyer happens to be the Hamilton County GOP chairman. These connections are reason enough to raise an eyebrow at the story being pulled down.
CityBeat, Cincinnati's alt-weekly, has been all over this story. They pointed out the mysterious disappearance of the story to the Enquirer's editor, Carolyn Washburn, and received the following explanation:
An editor determined — and I agreed — that it did not meet our news standards for publication," Washburn wrote to CityBeat in an email Wednesday evening. "The Mr. Castellini in question is not a public figure, has nothing to do with the Reds, etc. We don't report every domestic charge in the community. But while that was being discussed, someone posted it. We quickly took it down but not before it began to get traction.
That explanation feels a little flimsy, seeing as how the Enquirer regularly posts stories about the arrests of people who are not public figures.
We reached out to the reporter who wrote the now-disappeared story about the Castellinis, but have yet to hear back.
[CityBeat]