The Knucklehead of the Day award

Today's winner is the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. They get the award for the following.

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.

So our latest Mark Foley folly has a New York Times Company newspaper doing the following.

1- Wrongly identify a man as a pedophile.
2- Because of their reporting, the photo is sent out over the wire services.
3- A wire service, not the newspaper identifies the mistake.
4- The newspaper posts a correction but buries it in a sidebar instead of prominently feature it on their web page.
5- The doesn't even apologize for their mistake to readers.

But the Sarasota Herald Tribune had to give itself a congratulatory slap on the back for their scoop with this video.

Apparently no fact checking was done. How hard would it have been to ask someone in Malta to confirm the photograph was the priest? Of course the paper cut corners by not actually sending reporters to the island, so why not also assume that the photo was who they thought it was.

What a bunch of sickos. Then the Sarasota Herald Tribune likes looking at autopsy photos of a dead girl. What do these two episodes tell you about this newspaper?

Note- If you want to see the picture in question, visit The Daily Pulp. The librarian reminds me of my 11th grade English teacher.

The Sarasota Herald Tribune is today's Knucklehead of the day.

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