We noticed this afternoon that, in their race to publish first, some otherwise reliable sites are publishing some half-ass information about Eliot Spitzer and his ho. Gawker published this misleading picture from the website of the Emperor’s Club VIP Modeling Agency with the headline: “Did One Of These Ladies Take Down the Governor?” knowing full well the page is not from the Emperor’s Club VIP prostitution site:

While these photos look like they’ve either been cut from magazines (Albany Vogue?) or borrowed from the headshots pile at local news station, there’s a chance one of them might actually be “Kristen”, Governor Spitzer’s date that lonely February night in Washington DC. Other models, some of whose pictures are rapidly disappearing from here, might be more likely candidates, but these are the only ones with faces we’ve got.

That’s okay because most people will read the headline and go straight for the photo gallery before they realize they’ve been duped into clicking. A screen grab of the real web address (via Gothamist) is pictured above and is decidedly less click worthy.

Wonkette was probably the worse offender, though, for announcing that Eliot Spitzer is a bona fide pimp about half a dozen times this afternoon despite the fact that the stories they were sourcing all listed Spitzer as “Client Number 9.” The site’s commenters pointed out this error to no avail. Wonkette continued to refer to him as a Whoremonger throughout the afternoon.

We’re all for having some fun, but at least base it on truth. It’s not like this story is lacking in sordid details.