Friday, June 13, 2014

SF Weakly's Piss-Poor Errors Over Hightower Poster Need Correcting

While they certainly spelled my surname correctly and the publicity will greatly assist making voters aware of the campaign for Supervisor this fall, a writer and his editor at a local alternative rag have tossed essential fact-checking down the toilet with their mistake-ridden online snark about the Avalos/Wiener poster getting attention this week.

The following letter was sent to the writer and editor and we really hope they quickly acknowledge their errors, make corrections and take a Journalism 101 course at City College of San Francisco.



The letter sent to the SF Weakly:
Dear Erin Sherbert,

As editor of the SF Weekly's online pages, you owe me and your readers a number of corrections for your numerous mistakes in your web post by your writer David Elijah Nahmod about the poster Mitch Hightower made from Patrick Connors' photo of Sup. Avalos in the City Hall bathroom and the one of I took of the District 8 Supervisor in Oct. 2012.
Your headline says I made the poster:
"Supervisor Candidate Michael Petrelis Makes Parody Poster of Supervisor Wiener in the Bathroom".
Not true. In an email to Nahmod, I explained to him that I had nothing to do with the creation of the poster in question. Why this fact was ignored by your publication is something I wish you would address.
The story alleges this:
"His new campaign poster addresses many important issues that are no doubt on the minds of his potential constituents."
Not true. It's not my poster. If it were my poster, don't you think I would have put my name in it? Sheesh.
Next mistakes:
"So he went ahead and made this parody poster explaining as much. So he recruited Avalos to parody the bathroom pose."
I didn't make the poster and if I had I sure as hell would have said so on my blog. Mitch created it and I wonder where the hell Nahmod got his inaccurate information. Also, I didn't recruit Avalos for anything. Patrick persuaded Avalos to pose for him, not me.
More mistakes, but this time from Sup. Avalos who like Nahmod seems to relish ignoring basic facts:
"'I was not aware of Petrelis' campaign poster,' he told SF Weekly. 'I don't approve, but I know he just does what he wants and he enjoys being inflammatory.'"

It's not my poster! How many times do I have to say this? Um, Sup. Avalos, I sure would like to learn why you agreed to pose for Patrick in the bathroom and if you worried your striking the pose would be seen as inflammatory.
Next sorta mistake:
"Petrelis certainly is relishing in his accomplishment."
Well, I am relishing what Patrick and Mitch have accomplished on their own and how it shows how the SF Weekly is so zealous about delivering snark it will gleefully overlook the facts.
Here is a hard fact you've ignored. Patrick posted the photo of Sup. Avalos to his Twitter feed that got this whole ball rolling.
Also, if you look at my FB campaign page it was on June 11 that Mitch shared his poster creation.
I certainly will be wary of dealing with David Elijah Nahmod ever again. The SF Weekly should learn basic fact-checking. Same goes for Sup. Avalos before he trashes me over a poster I didn't create.
Your piss-poor reporting shows that corporate San Francisco media continues to be flushed down the urinal.

Regards,
Michael Petrelis

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