As you know, at TPM we put a high premium on transparency as using TPM Readers as a resource in our reporting and analysis of the news. So here's a minor controversy that's just broken out at TPM HQ. We're about to post our TPM Shag Fund timeline. And in the process of compiling the document it turns out there's some controversy over the specific meaning of the reports that then-Giuliani mistress Judi Nathan's NYPD valet and security escort also helped walked Nathan's dog.

Now, the original report, or at least the most recent one came in this December 1st article in the New York Daily News which detailed how the NYPD was dragooned into being Nathan's personal limo service when they ferried her on trips to her parents house 130 miles away in Pennsylvania.

The key passage comes midway through the article ...

At the time, it was not uncommon to see Nathan being chauffeured around the city in an undercover Dodge with two detectives, who sometimes even helped to walk her dog.

Now, since the article was published, I've taken this to mean that the NYPD officers detailed to take care of Nathan sometimes walked her dog for her.

But Paul Kiel disagrees. He interprets the statement as meaning that the cops escorted Nathan while she walked her dog.

To me, Paul's reading is redundant. A security detail escorts you everywhere you go in public. So saying they were helping her walk her dog if they were only escorting her while she did it would be misleading.

In other words, I read this as implying direct cop to dog contact, that they were walking her dog.

Meanwhile, TPM Editor-at-Large David Kurtz basically takes my position but does a little bit of annoying hedging. From our work chat area, I quote David writing, "I imagine them holding leash while she talks on phone, that kind of thing."

In the end we compromised and included the exact quote from the NYDN in the Shag Fund timeline. But we'd like to put this to our readers for a more precise adjudication. And of course if you're one of the reporters on the story, by all means send us a note helping us resolve the controversy.