By date from MediaBugs

This intersection does not exist

2010-08-13T07:35:54-07:00

"Police found the victim at the intersection of 16th Street and Mozart Place after receiving a call at about 9:15 p.m., according to Hugh Carew, a police spokesman."

There is no intersection of 16th Street and Mozart Place. They are parallel (though near each other) and do not intersect.

NYT Misstates Diaspora's Crowdfunding by Factor of 10

2010-07-21T01:39:18-07:00

Diaspora, an open-source project to create a federated system for social networking, raised just over $200,000 through Kickstarter, a crowdfunding platform. Rosen stated the project raised $20,000.

Polling on one topic, reporting on another

2010-07-19T12:28:25-07:00

Bloomberg’s poll (PDF), which the story was based on, asked the following (bottom of page five): “Do you think the spill proves off-shore drilling is just too dangerous and should be banned in U.S. waters, or was this a freak accident and offshore drilling can be made safer and should not be banned?” Based on this question, the Bloomberg headline blared: Americans in 73% Majority Oppose Deepwater Drilling Ban. The story begins, “Most Americans oppose President Barack Obama’s ban on deepwater oil drilling in response to BP Plc’s Gulf of Mexico spill…” Bloomberg made the same false claim two days later in a Businessweek story

Obviously, there is a huge difference between an indefinite ban on all offshore drilling and President Obama’s temporary moratorium on deepwater drilling. Regardless, Bloomberg polled about the former and reported on the latter. And frankly, I use the word ‘reported’ extremely loosely here. What Bloomberg actually did is fabricate public opinion information on a highly contested public policy issue that is currently being considered in some form by all three branches of government. This is important because political actors, both within Congress and the Obama Administration, may look to public opinion polls like this one to determine the proper course of action.

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KCBS quotes two unknown people at Israel protest

2010-06-03T12:47:12-07:00

Why didn't this story identify the two people with whom the reporter spoke at the scene of the protest?

Here's the segment in question:

Protesters in San Francisco were separated by metal barricades and lines of police. It was a loud, but peaceful demonstration.

"I’m outraged about what’s happened in Gaza and especially to have a humanitarian effort being sabotaged like this," said a pro-Palestinian demonstrator.

The crowd was heavily pro-Palestinian, but there were also people who showed their support for Israel.

"I believe this whole thing is bogus what’s going on here right now," said an Israeli supporter.

The failure to identify or further describe these two sources, the only two quoted from on the scene, undermines the credibility of the story. If the identities of the two sources are purposely being withheld by KCBS, then the story should state so and, ideally, why.

NYT jazz article describes Amnesia wrong

2010-05-18T06:54:43-07:00

The article says: “Hotplate,” SFJazz’s monthly concert series at the Amnesia Lounge, a hip Mission club, asks local artists and groups like Joe Bagale, Wil Blades and Le Jazz Hot to reinterpret the work of jazz greats, including Sun Ra, Jimmy Smith and Django Reinhardt.

The venue is called "Amnesia" not "Amnesia Lounge." Also, referring to it as a "club" seems misleading; as they say on their own website, it is a small neighborhood bar.

Io9 used my photos without properly attributing them

2010-05-11T07:52:22-07:00

In an article this morning about the upcoming movie Transformers 3, IO9 repurposed photos and video that I shot without giving me proper credit.

The photos, originally posted on my Flickr account and personal blog, are clearly marked with a Creative Commons license that requires attribution. Not only did IO9 not credit me, but they've copied the photos onto their server, removing all trace of their origin... my iPhone.

Wrong suspend-AB32 threshold frequency, by 3x

2010-05-03T01:59:30-07:00

The story's error paints Steven Maviglio as alarmist: "Maviglio said the goal is unrealistic, as the state has only hit the proposed target (for lifting the suspension) three times in the past decade." But in other stories, he's been reported as saying three times in the last *3* decades.

(I've tweeted Maviglio and left a phone msg for him, asking him to confirm that this story's quote is the incorrect one)

We're still alive and she's a paid freelance writer.

2010-05-01T10:55:03-07:00

Lance Williams refers to the the "now-defunct" Berkeley Daily Planet, which is still online and can be found by typing in the same URL which produced the chicken manure story he references in his post. The writer was not an "op-ed" writer but our paid and appreciated occasional freelance garden columnist.

George was neurotic but he WASN'T Jerry's neighbor

2010-04-28T01:33:58-07:00

LINE IN QUESTION: Alexander played neurotic neighbor George Costanza on "Seinfeld".

In fact, although George was neurotic, he did not live in Jerry's building. In most of the series George lived in Queens with his parents (the subject of many storylines).

Description of light bulb in electrocution story raises questions

2010-04-20T08:33:15-07:00

As suggested in a number of the comments on SFGate, the journalist's description of the light fixture involved in the electricution doesn't pass the smell test. According to the story "Mustafa Algazawy of San Francisco was changing a 16-foot-long, 120-volt bulb" when he was killed. As someone who works with buildings, I am pretty sure that there is no such thing as a 16ft flourescent light bulb. What's more, I have never heard of a flourescent fixture referred to by its voltage. Voltage refers to the current and is found in the ballast of a flourescent fixture - not the bulb.

Wrong figure used for SF school cutbacks

2010-04-16T11:21:15-07:00

The story "S.F. school district, teachers at impasse," from April 14, 2010, appears differently in print and online. The print version says the San Francisco Unified School District is facing a two-year budget shortfall of $118 million. The Web version says $113 million. A correction did appear the next day in the paper: "A story misstated the expected two-year budget shortfall for San Francisco schools. The correct figure is $113 million."

Read it here: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/04/15/MNSR1CUL03.DTL#ixzz0lHxAJOCd

But the Web version of the story on SFGate didn't pick up the correction. There was a vague correction at the bottom of the story on the Web version: "This story has been changed since it appeared in print." It does not indicate what the error was or how it was fixed.

Wrong location for "Andy Warhol: Good for the Jews" in EBay Express

2010-04-12T10:36:36-07:00

Listing for Josh Kornbluth's show "Andy Warhol: Good for the Jews?" says the show is at the Jewish Community Center in SF, but actually it's at The Jewish Theater in the Theater Artaud building.

There's a comment pointing out the error but it's still showing with the wrong info on the Express home page.

missing "made" in "made key promises"

2010-04-07T02:38:24-07:00

From the first paragraph:

"Meanwhile, while many officials currently in office have touted significant achievements, they have promises yet to be fulfilled."

That last phrase is ungrammatical or inaccurate. It should be "they have made promises" or "their past promises remain unfulfilled" or the like.

"been met with" -> "met with" or "met"

2010-04-07T02:22:56-07:00

Caption:

"A proposal to construct a laundromat in the Southside Lofts & Retail building on Telegraph Avenue has been met with opposition from residents, who cite concerns about noise, safety and parking problems."

"...been met with...." is redundant. This should be "met with" or "met."

iPad sales figures mischaracterized

2010-04-06T03:55:50-07:00

The reporter apparently read Apple's press release headline in which the company claimed to have sold 300,000 iPads on the "First Day" (Saturday), or else used incorrect facts from other headlines.

In fact, Apple did not sell that many last Saturday. The total (as Apple later admits in its release) was the number sold through that day, the first day it was available in stores. But Apple had been taking pre-orders for some time and had charged at least some credit cards well before the Saturday store-sales date.

Controversial remarks by S.F. police chief â€” what remarks?

2010-03-29T09:00:00-07:00

The article "Police chief's remarks on terrorism anger Arabs" is missing a critical piece of information — the chief's alleged remarks are not quoted anywhere in the story!

The reporter paraphrases what Gascon "reportedly said" at the large meeting of city officials and business people, and what he "admitted to saying" in a phone interview with the reporter. She also includes various responses to the chief's remarks, including from people who apparently weren't even there.

This was an official meeting of about 150 people, according to the article. Is there audio or video of the event? Was the police chief speaking from prepared remarks? What about any number of people in attendance who heard what he actually said and could recall? Couldn't the reporter track down and provide his actual comments at the root of the controversy?

SFGate exaggerated giardia risk from stolen puppy

2010-03-05T03:34:37-08:00

A post in "The Scavenger" blog, which had prominent placement on the home page on March 4, had a headline emphasizing that a stolen puppy infected with giardia could infect humans. The post itself also stated this — but it is unlikely for humans to contract giardia from dogs.