Mercury News yanks its Sunday Magazine

"This is going to result in some major upheaval because two-thirds of the Sunday insert packages are complete," Yarnold told staffers in a memo Friday.

The cover story of the magazine was a personal essay by Mercury News reporter and lifelong Democrat David Early. In his essay, he wondered how anyone he liked or admired could be a Republican.

The Mercury News enlisted employees from all departments Friday to remove 200,000 copies of the magazine that had already been inserted into Sunday editions. Another 150,000 copies of the magazine had yet to be inserted, but some copies of the SV insert had likely hit the streets before they could be removed, Yarnold said.

"I think it's likely that some will slip through," Yarnold told The AP Saturday. When asked if any editorial policy changes would be made it light of the magazine pullback, Yarnold replied "I'm sure we're all going to learn from this."

Yarnold said the edition of SV magazine lacked an opposing point of view. He also stated that the magazine didn't meet Mercury News standards because it was to appear on newsstands just two days before the general election.

"Every day, in our editorial mission statement on page two, we say we are passionate about accuracy and fairness," Yarnold said. "This is an unfortunate, embarrassing decision, but it's true to our values."

Early's essay would have been fine if it had run three months earlier, according to Yarnold. He went on to tell Mercury News employees that Early was a dedicated writer and the magazine's removal was not intended as a criticism of him.

One media analyst said the Mercury News caught the issue just time to avoid further damage.

"What happened to the checks and balances that would have seen the red flags waving all over this one?" said Al Tompkins, who teaches journalists at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies in Florida.

"It's a good thing that they minimized the harm as much as possible by not allowing the magazine to hit the streets," Tompkins said. "But it doesn't completely erase the damage that has been done."

Tompkins said research shows many voters are already suspicious that reporters often allow their political preferences to shape news coverage and that incidents such as this would only exacerbate the problem.

The cost of removing the magazine from the Sunday edition was unknown.

Advertisements scheduled to appear in this Sunday's SV magazine will run in other portions of the Sunday Mercury News or in future editions of the magazine, according to the Mercury News.<