Why Did Charlotte Observer Pull Story About Kay Hagen Conflict of Interest?

The shocking report was posted at around 11pm on Saturday evening which claims a company run by Kay Hagan's husband Chip may have illegally received a grant from the 2009 stimulus. But if you looked for it a few hours later the story disappeared from the Charlotte Observer website, leaving nothing but a 404 error message.

But nothing totally disappears from the internet, the story remains on the internet cache

State officials say a stimulus grant given to a company run by Kay Hagan's husband needs "further legal review."

WBTV obtained a memo written by the Department of Energy and Natural Resources which includes a letter to the state's auditor from last month. The memo states that NCDENR is looking into potential conflict of interest claims involving Senator Kay Hagan.

NCDENR says they have reviewed grant records and found conflict of issue claims warranted further legal review. Kay Hagan's husband manages one of the companies in question, who received an energy efficiency grant money in 2010.

According to the NC Department of Energy and Natural Resources, the grant agreement included provisions prohibiting family members from receiving incentive payments, “these rules require, among other things, that no one with direct lineal relations may receive incentive payment. For example, the mother, father, brother, sister, son or daughter or a contractor working in this Program cannot receive Awards, contracts and subcontracts.”

The same report appeared on the website of WBTV which is owned by the same company as the Charlotte Observer but a click on the link also leads to an error 404 message.

The question is why did the Charlotte Observer pull the story? There was no message or apology. No notice saying it was pulled because of an inaccuracy or because it needed to be updated. Based on the Observer's editorial bias toward  Kagan, the only explanation can be that a senior member of the Observer team woke up on Sunday morning saw read the report and ordered it be pulled. If there is a different explanation neither the Charlotte Observer nor WBTV was saying so.