People magazine misidentified random woman as Google employee Amanda Rosenberg, Gawker-owned Silicon Valley blog Valleywag reported.
Since late August, rumors and reports have circulated that Google founder Sergey Brin and Rosenberg were dating, as the New York Times reported. Brin and his wife have “been living apart for months,” family spokesperson reportedly told ABC News.
In the print edition of People, the magazine used two photos to accompany its story, “Google Love Triangle: Billion-Dollar Breakup?” One was a photo of Brin and his wife Anne Wojcicki and the other showed an Asian woman wearing a white shirt and Google Glass.
iMediaEthics scanned the print version of the People issue in question. See the inaccurate photo above in the top right. (Credit: People, screenshot)
“But instead of choosing one of the many photos Amanda Rosenberg herself uploaded, People magazine apparently seizes the first snap of a woman in Google Glass it can find,” Valleywag wrote.
Rosenberg has posted numerous photos on her public Google + page.
As Valleywag reported, the photo used was apparently from Splash News & Photo Agency, which had a similar photo of the same woman in the same shirt wearing Google Glass taken in June 2013. The caption information reads, according to Valleywag:
“A lady seen wearing the soon to be released google glasses whilst riding on her citibike in New York City, USA.”
People‘s managing editor Larry Hackett admitted the error, according to the New York Post, which quoted him saying:
“While we accept full responsibility for the mistake, we were supplied with a photo that mistakenly identified the woman pictured as Rosenberg.
“We regret the error, and apologize for any discomfort it has caused.”
See below a scan of the New York Post article.
See above the New York Post’s article on the People error. (Credit: NYPost, screenshot)
iMediaEthics has written to People asking if it will publish a correction in print or online and, if so, when. We’ve reached out to Splash for confirmation that it provided a photo with an inaccurate caption. We’ve also asked if it will be updating the photo records and letting any other outlet that bought the photo know of the error. We’ll update with any responses.