The Case of the Missing Newsom Op-Ed Piece Solved

Conspiracy theorists freaked the holy hell out this morning over a San Francisco Chronicle piece penned by Phil Bronstein -- one that was critical of Gavin Newsom as California's next governor -- which was pulled. Or so it seemed. What happened was, local-politics fanboy types, like the anonymous ILoveGavinNewsom and journo Josh Wolf, accused SFGate of censoring the anti-Newsom bit. (While Wolf, a journalist by fame, didn't balls out accuse them of censorship, he retweeted the anonymous blog's assertion without consideration of the source.)

Dying for some internet drama this morning, SFist sent an electronic mail to Bronstein to see if, in fact, his words were being silenced by Heart Corp., the Gettys, and those secret aliens that live beneath City Hall who control our thoughts.

Phil's response? Human error.

Boring.

You see, not everything that is in the print edition of the Chron makes it on SFGate. Bronstein's newest column is sort of a VIP-room feature for print eyes only, which was published online by mistake. Wardee Bush, or whatever his name is, explains it in better, more thorough detail here.