Here’s an entertaining letter from one “Bob” Bennett that appeared in the Chronicle over the weekend:
On Friday, Sept. 28, after months of hearings and negotiations, Daniel Yeh pleaded guilty to one count of a 39-count indictment for filing a false claim for lodging a hurricane victim. At the time of sentencing, the U.S. government will drop 38 counts.
Later, after the Friday hearing, the Chronicle printed the story “Hotel owner pleads guilty to scam” without attending the federal hearing, interviewing anyone at the hearing or checking the facts.
Because of the butchering of the chronology of the facts, the story read more like a fictional tale rather than the usual non-Pulitzer Prize- worthy Chronicle article. The story contained multiple one-liners of statements and facts, cut and pasted, then strategically arranged in order to deceive the readers.
The story gave the impression that Robert Bennett, Yeh’s attorney, was interviewed and issued a statement related to entering a guilty plea.
In reality, no sentencing or plea statement was issued, the circumstances as to why Yeh pled guilty were not explained, nor was anyone connected to the plea interviewed.
The Chronicle neglected to mention that Yeh pled guilty to one count because, as he stated in court, he was responsible for his prior mistakes.
In contrast, the story seemed to suggest that Bennett, Yeh’s attorney, threw out an excuse to try and justify his client’s behavior contemporaneously to entering a plea of guilty.
This is especially damning to Yeh because the severity of this sentence depends upon the degree of responsibility taken for his past actions.
The story failed to mention that all of the statements quoted were from more than a year ago and are attributable to the litigated issue of mental competency.
Circumstances continuously change in any criminal case and those statements made are not applicable to the current state of the case.
The scanty retraction printed by the Chronicle on Oct. 2 only addressed Bennett’s statements that were made before Yeh entered a guilty plea. The retraction did not mention that the story was written without double-checking facts or that its falsities could adversely affect Yeh’s final sentence.
Ouch!
That’s our Chronicle.
And it’s not likely to get better now that Steve Jetton has assumed the duties of former reader representative James Campbell. Jetton, it should be recalled, embarrassed himself and his newspaper by arguing on the radio with the 16-year-old sister of one Leroy Sandoval about the Chronicle‘s deplorable coverage of Sandoval’s death in the service of his country.
