Newsom Web site features newspaper “corrections”
Staff Report
February 11, 2009
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| Mayor Gavin Newsom has launched a Web page devoted to correcting media reports. (Courtesy photo) |
SAN FRANCISCO — Mayor Gavin Newsom’s office is known to be a bit prickly when hit with negative press, so it launched a new page on his Web site to tell his side of such stories.
The new “corrections” page is a means of rebutting media reports.
Mayoral spokesman Nathan Ballard said the corrections page is not a way to circumvent the Fourth Estate, but a way to complement it, “Because the mayor’s constituents deserve the full story.”
The first story in which Ballard “set the record straight” was a Chronicle piece about Gus Murad, a political supporter of Newsom’s who benefited from a typo in planning legislation passed last week. The typo allows Murad to build an 85-foot tall condominium in the Mission district; other buildings are limited to 65 feet.
The “correction” claims the article gave the “false impression” that the mayor did something improper when he vetoed legislation to fix the typo. See the new page at sfmayor.typepad.com/corrections.
This isn’t the first time the mayor has used the Internet to spread his message. He posted his seven-hour 2008 State of The City address on YouTube.
