In the latest case of mistaken identity, the Philadelphia Daily News mistook a photo of Simone Biles for Gabby Douglas.
Philadelphia newspaper mistakes Simone Biles for Gabby Douglas in photo https://t.co/Y28iKPOXPg via @NBCPhiladelphia pic.twitter.com/JwZSgoE9bq
— NBC News (@NBCNews) August 17, 2016
Accompanying a story about Douglas titled “She Can Vault Over the Vitriol” is a photo of her teammate, Simone Biles. The photo is captioned, “Gabby Douglas: Olympic gold medalist, need we say more?”
The piece, written by Ronnie Polaneczky, is addressed directly to Douglas, celebrating her accomplishments and reassuring her that all of the negativity she’s received is because she’s doing well.
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“It makes you want to bash your head against the wall,” Polaneczky said to NBC10. “I’m mortified.”
Polaneczky, who doesn’t handle photo or layout decision making, apologized. The editor of the newspaper also tweeted an apology on Wednesday.
We ran a photo of @Simone_Biles with an uplifting column today about Gabby Douglas. We screwed up. We are embarrassed, and we apologize.
— Michael Days (@mikedays) August 17, 2016
Polaneczky mentioned that he hopes people will still read the article.