Andrea Tantaros, a Fox News favorite, helped kick off the vacation controversy with a name-calling column last week in the Daily News; a column that was widely cited in the press. One slight problem, the column was built upon a monumental falsehood [emphasis added]:

While many of us are struggling, the First Lady is spending the next few days in a five-star hotel on the chic Costa del Sol in southern Spain with 40 of her “closest friends.”

Fact: The First Lady vacationed in Spain with two of her friends, so Tarantos was only off by, y'know, 38.

Why hasn't Tantaros and the News corrected this egregious error? And yes, this is just one of many falsehoods that helped bring the smear campaign to life.

UPDATED: When is the WashPost's Ruth Marcus going to correct this error:

Let's stipulate: A five-star resort on the Spanish Costa del Sol was probably not the first choice of White House spin-meisters for a mother-daughter getaway. Especially when the getaway included a posse of 40 friends of the first lady staying at the Hotel Villa Padierna, where rooms start at $330 a night, and photos of Michelle Obama strolling in Marbella wearing an off-the-shoulder number by Jean Paul Gaultier.