Taegan Goddard’s Political Wire ran this item late yesterday, spurring much discussion:

Republican insiders tell Political Wire that a no confidence vote on RNC Chairman Michael Steele is likely to be called after the NY-20 special election on March 31 — regardless of whether Republicans win the seat or not.
Katon Dawson, who came in second in the January RNC vote, is said to be quietly organizing a vote and is getting the support of several state party chairmen who want to dump Steele.

You’ll notice there’s no comment from Katon Dawson or his staff one way or the other. Earlier today Dawson sent a message of denial to Campaign Spot.

Jay Ragley, executive director of the South Carolina Republican party, says that neither he nor Dawson received any messages from Goddard or any representative of Political Wire, by either e-mail or phone.

I contacted Goddard, to see if there was some missed communication or he made some other effort to get Dawson’s response, and he responded, “I did not. It was multiple, reliable GOP sources that made that claim.”

I’m not the best reporter in the world. But if I’m gonna make a pretty big accusation in a blog post, I know that I have to at least try to contact the subject of the accusation and get his side of the story, or at least give him an opportunity to deny the accusation.

Periodically I hear that liberal blogs do more, or better, original reporting than conservative blogs do. I have my doubts about that view, and those doubts are strengthened when stories cite unnamed “Republican insiders” — and the bloggers forget to, you know, contact the subject of the story.

Headlines generated by that Political Wire blog post:

ThinkProgress: “Katon Dawson, Former Member Of Whites-Only Club, Is Leading Charge For No-Confidence Vote In Steele”

TalkingPointsMemo: “Steele’s Days May be Numbered”

The post is also linked at Huffington Post.