The Chronicle, in a July 18, 2010, review of the book "The Big Lie," accused David A. Kaplan, formerly of Newsweek, of "flagrant ethical blindness." The basis of the charge was that Kaplan wrote a Newsweek cover story about venture capitalist Tom Perkins' involvement in the Hewlett-Packard boardroom scandal while Kaplan was also at work [...]
A story about domestic violence striking a Martinez family incorrectly stated that the son of murder victim Catalina Torres was an orphan. His father is still alive. Link Report an error
Neil Armstrong piloted the lunar module to the moon’s surface on July 20, 1969. A story in Sunday’s A-section named the wrong person. A story in Tuesday’s Observer about Statesville native Tom Marshburn’s first spacewalk misquoted the words of Neil Armstrong when he stepped onto the moon in 1969. Armstrong said: "That’s one small step [...]
In a list of 144 celebrity graduates of Bay Area high schools, baseball great Joe DiMaggio was included as a graduate of Galileo High School. He attended Galileo, but left before graduation. Cartoonist Robert Ripley attended Santa Rosa High School, but also left before graduation. And: In a list of 144 celebrity graduates of Bay [...]
In some editions, a story about the filming of a made-for-TV tanker-truck explosion in San Francisco misattributed a quote. The spectator who responded to the question “What kind of person spends half a day waiting for a fake explosion?” by saying, “Losers. … You better put a ‘LOL’ laughing out loud after that,” should have [...]
A photo Sunday was misidentified as that of Barbra Streisand and Robert Redford. The photo was of Meryl Streep and Redford in “Out of Africa.” Link Idol impostor: Those old enough to know were quick to let us know we should have known better than to mix up Janet and Vivien Leigh in a photo [...]
A story about “American Idol” contestants in last Sunday’s Datebook included an incorrect photograph. The contestant pictured was Constantine Maroulis, not Bo Bice. Report an error
A photo of Sarah Palin and a special-needs child in Open Forum on the Opinion page Wednesday misidentified the child as Palin’s son, Trig, based on information provided by the photographer. The identity of the child, who appears to be older than the infant Trig, is unknown. Link Report an error
Because of an editing error, a letter by Hal Rowland on Sept. 22 read “yellow citizens” when it should have read “fellow citizens.” Link Report an error
The headline for a letter in Tuesday’s Letters to the Editor incorrectly read, “No less than Chevron.” It should have read, “No less than Chevrolet.” Link Report an error
An obituary on June 10 about Alvin Edlin, former owner of Bud’s Ice Cream store in Noe Valley, implied that Bud Scheideman, who founded the store in 1933, was deceased. Scheideman is very much alive and resides on the Peninsula. In 1952, Edlin acquired Bud’s Ice Cream store from Scheideman, who went on to a [...]
Articles on Thursday and Friday about sexual images on federal appeals court Judge Alex Kozinski’s Web site contained erroneous descriptions of one video. The video showed a partially undressed man being pursued by a donkey in a field but did not show sexual contact. Report an error
A Datebook story Saturday about Arianna Huffington misspelled the name of Osama bin Laden. Report an error
In a story Friday in Datebook, the date of the first Boy Trouble comic was incorrect. The series began in 1994. Also, Justin Green’s Binky Brown Meets the Holy Virgin Mary was not a gay comic. Link Report an error
A caption accompanying a photo of Chelsea Clinton on Monday misidentified the girl with whom she was talking, and a correction on Tuesday misspelled her name. The girl was ReNeen Williams. LinkThanks, Mad Dog! Report an error
Two photos of a Menlo Park house in the Nov. 4 Chronicle Magazine were modified by the source, without the paper’s knowledge, to eliminate solar panels from the roof. The Chronicle’s policy is that photographs should represent reality precisely and accurately. Link Report an error
Our recent post about the state of online corrections was published before an inspired project by the San Francisco Chronicle. The paper is, as far as we know, the first newspaper in the world to introduce audio corrections. Last week it launched Correct Me If I’m Wrong, a regular podcast that will feature selected voicemail [...]
Our obsessive cataloging of corrections occasionally enables us to spot a pattern. Whether it’s the failure of newspapers to identify someone they initially misidentified in a photo, or the inability of newspapers to accurately report on, well, newspapers, we sometimes feel as though we’re listening to a broken record. Such was the case when we [...]
The San Francisco Chronicle is facing a potential lawsuit after it made a major misidentification error in a high profile Sunday story. As part of a series of articles on the local police department’s use of force policy, the paper ran a photo of a man it identified as SFPD Sgt. John Haggett, an officer [...]
The San Francisco Chronicle has run a correction stating that a freelance journalist plagiarized (though they don’t use that word) from an article that originally appeared in The Guardian back in November. It also notes that the article first appeared in the International Herald Tribune — but we can’t find any notice from that paper [...]
