Politico’s Playbook newsletter issued a correction on Saturday morning after misidentifying Democratic leader Chuck Schumer’s wife, Iris Weinshall, as Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor. The publication claimed that the case of mistaken identity was sparked by a photo sent in by a tipster allegedly taken at the hip D.C. eatery Le Diplomate on Friday night. In Politico’s report, they claimed Sotomayor, after not appearing for oral arguments Friday at the Supreme Court over coronavirus concerns, was dining with Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. “Our tipster got it wrong, but we should have double-checked,” the correction reads.
The publication never reached out to Schumer’s office. “I did not hear from them prior to publication,” Justin Goodman, Schumer’s top comms aide, told The Daily Beast. Reached for comment, Politico spokesperson Brad Dayspring declined to respond on the record. The Daily Beast was subsequently and accidentally added to a group chat in which he texted two colleagues, “I emailed Mike [Zapler] and Matt [Kaminski] [to] discuss.” Eugene Daniels, who wrote the item, declined to comment through a spokesperson. In a third version of their correction late Saturday, Politico added, “Politico standards require we verify this information...the editor who received the tip failed to do so in this case.” The Daily Beast reported in late November that Politico’s marquee product has been embedded in turmoil.
Late on Saturday evening, readers of Politico’s newsletter made The Daily Beast aware that a subsequent email noting the corrections was not sent. In response, a Politico spokesperson told The Daily Beast: “It will be addressed in tomorrow’s newsletter.”
