This post has been updated.

Chicago Sun-Times reporter/columnist Jennifer Hunter has doubled down on stupid. Earlier this week, Hunter, who is reportedly married to the paper's publisher and apparently excused from basic journalistic standards, is defending her characterization of Philadelphia lawyer Jim Ronca as a "staunch Republican" and playing the victim card.

Ever been harassed by a group of irate Republicans?

For the past few days, since a news story of mine was published on Monday, I have been bombarded with dozens of daily e-mails from Republicans calling me a liar, demanding I be fired, and insisting on a retraction.

The grumbling arose partially because my editor took a small part of my story and made it into a headline: "GOP lawyer sold on Dems." Reporters don't write headlines, editors do. And they want to write something catchy so readers will read the darned story.

This is false. It's a lie. It's a dishonest obfuscation. The headline is irrelevant. What is at issue is Hunter's characterization as a "staunch Republican" a man who has donated to Democrats over Republicans $11,000 to $1,250 over the past decade and a half. That's not the fault of the editor. That's Hunter's description. That's Hunter's story.

The story was not about the GOP lawyer; it was about the speeches five Democratic presidential candidates gave to a convention of trial lawyers (those two words "trial lawyers" also make Republicans crazy) last Sunday. As reporters usually do, I asked two attendees after the session what they thought about the speeches.

Except that the first six paragraphs is about Ronca and his reaction. She can say the story's about the Democrats all she wants, but Ronca's her lede. Apparently in Hunter's world anecdotal ledes don't really count when it comes to "what the story is all about."

One of the men I interviewed, Jim Ronca, identified himself as a disgruntled Republican, fed up with the Bush White House, who was going to give his vote and money to Democrats. In my story I called him a "staunch Republican." His wife was standing by his side, and so was a friend, a Democrat from New York, Ted Oshman, neither of whom disputed Ronca's description of himself as a Republican.

Oshman added during our interview that he could "not eliminate one of" the Democrats, they all spoke so well. That line ended up in a subhead on the story.

So what? Seriously. This may be evidence that you were lied to, his wife wasn't paying attention or his friend doesn't know him really well.

Hunter then follows up with several paragraphs of quotes from irate Republicans calling her what she has turned out to be -- a liar and then concludes with this:

The final kicker for all you Republicans who read my column with a magnifying glass is a press release issued Wednesday: "One of Chicago's key Republican fund-raisers, CME Group Executive Chairman Terry Duffy today announced that he is endorsing Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton for the 2008 election."

Duffy says he intends to remain a registered Republican.

Well, she should know that we were going to check this guy out too, because we can't trust her.

And a search of OpenSecrets.org turns up something a little closer to the truth. Terry Duffy of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange has given to Republicans -- and only Republicans. But if he's a "key Republican fund-raiser" then he focuses on other people's money, not his own. Duffy has given a total of $4,100 to two GOP House candidates in 2005 and 2006 -- and that's it. Before 2005 there's no record of him giving money to any candidate for federal office.

Hunter's original piece and this defense of it is a black eye for journalism in general and the Sun-Times specifically. Hopefully, readers have learned their lesson -- you can't trust anything Hunter says, including "and" and "the."

UPDATE/CORRECTION

Thanks to one of the commentors over at Newsbusters.org, a search under the name "Terrence Duffy" of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange turns up a whole lot more donations -- and they're not all exclusively GOP. Democrats who've received money from Duffy include senators Joe Lieberman (Conn.) and Dick Durbin (Ill.); and Rep. Harold Ford of Tennessee.

Duffy certainly appears to be a big GOP contributor. Another Newsbusters commentor notes that a search of the Sun-Times archives doesn't turn up any articles identifying him as a "key fundraiser."

Yet another Newsbusters commentor notes that Duffy's vow that he will remain a registered Republican even though he is supporting Hillary Clinton is an empty one -- Illinois voters do not register by party and can request any party's ballot in primary elections.