UPDATE: At 6:22pm, the Los Angeles Times published an article titled “An associate of Jerry Brown calls Meg Whitman a “whore” over pension reform (AUDIO).'” At 10:58 PM, the Times published another article with the headline “Brown or Aide Is Heard Slurring Whitman.” When the Times first broke the story, they had only reported that a Brown “associate” had used the slur, but now they are acknowledging the possibility that it was Brown himself who called the California GOP’s gubernatorial nominee a “whore.” A third possibility still is that both Brown and an aide used the offensive language to describe Whitman.

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UPDATE II: Los Angeles’s KCAL9 news attributes the word “whore” to Brown:

A transcript of the conversation authorized by the LA Police Protective League and transcribed by a registered court reporter identifies the voice that said the word “whore” as “J.B.” for Jerry Brown.

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A lesson in why you should always double-check that your phone is properly hung up before participating in a conversation wherein your rival is called a “whore.”

In an epic fit of frustration, Jerry Brown – and/or an aide with the Brown campaign, as the Los Angeles Times is asserting – is heard calling Republican challenger Meg Whitman a “whore” on a voicemail left for Scott Rate, a union official associated with the Los Angeles Police Protective League. Brown is upset that Whitman is scoring more police endorsements than he.

Brown campaign spokesman Sterling Clifford, confirming the tape’s authenticity, said that Brown was responding to the notion of accusing Whitman of cutting a deal to gain endorsements, not to the use of the word “whore.” The campaign was trying to determine the identity of the second speaker, he added.

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The exchange starts at the 1:50 mark.

It’s unclear whether or not the LA Times decided that it was an associate before calling Clifford, or whether it was Clifford who suggested that it was a campaign associate, rather than Brown, who made the remark. What we do know is that the LA Times went straight to the Brown camp for their narrative and at the time of this writing have made no effort to contact the Whitman campaign for a response. The voice in question has yet to be identified.

Regardless, Brown isn’t heard on tape admonishing the staffer for the language towards Whitman or the charge of cutting deals, something the Whitman campaign calls “patently false.” Says the Whitman campaign:

The use of the term “whore” is an insult to both Meg Whitman and to the women of California. This is an appalling and unforgivable smear against Meg Whitman. At the very least Mr. Brown tacitly approved this despicable slur and he himself may have used the term at least once on this recording.

– Sarah Pompei, spokeswoman, Meg Whitman 2010

So just what was the LA Times‘s role in this story? Who is the voice on the recording calling Whitman a “whore?”

Developing …