The Sarasota Herald-Tribune has had to run a correction after it ran a photo of a librarian and identified him as the priest former Rep. Mark Foley said he was sexually assaulted by. (See our Foley corrections collection here.) The Associated Press uncovered the error. The correction:
Herald-Tribune corrects photo with Foley story: The Herald-Tribune published the wrong photo with its story Thursday identifying the priest who may have sexually abused former Rep. Mark Foley.
The photo was not of Anthony Mercieca, the Malta priest who Foley’s lawyer says abused Foley.
The Herald-Tribune took the photo from a section about Mercieca on the Gozo Cathedral Public Library web site. The Associated Press in Malta reports the man in the photo was a librarian.
Apology? The LA Times also ran the photo, and it issued this correction:
Priest admits fondling: An article in Friday’s Section A about a priest admitting fondling former Rep. Mark Foley as a boy appeared with a photo of a man identified as the priest, Father Anthony Mercieca. The Sarasota Herald-Tribune, which was the source of the photo, says it was not of Mercieca but of a librarian taken from the Gozo Cathedral Public Library website.
As did the Hartford Courant:
A story on Page A6 Thursday ran a photo incorrectly identified as that of the Rev. Anthony Mercieca. The correct photo appears today. Link
And MSNBC.com:
MSNBC.com’s Oct. 19 coverage about sexual abuse allegations by Rep. Mark Foley included a photo distributed by the Sarasota, Fla., Herald-Tribune that incorrectly depicted Anthony Mercieca, the priest who Foley alleges abused him. The man in the photo was not Mercieca. The paper says it acquired the incorrect photo from the Web site of a Maltese, Fla., library with which Mercieca is associated. Link
