Bill de Blasio or DeBlasio? What happened when a longstanding newspaper failed to verify its source.

If you read Thursday’s version of this newsletter, you saw an item about a story in a respected British newspaper — The Times of London — having quotes from someone they claimed to be former New York City mayor Bill de Blasio. What made the quotes so interesting was that they were critical of New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, which was in contrast to de Blasio’s known stance on Mamdani.

Turns out, the Times of London reporter Bevan Hurley hadn’t talked to the former New York City mayor. The actual former mayor put out a statement on social media saying the quotes were not his, and that he never spoke to Hurley. The paper quickly yanked the story from its website and said it had personally apologized to de Blasio.

The story made the rounds in media circles as a cautionary tale — a news outlet should always double-check its sources.

So how did it happen? Well, initial reports were that Hurley sent out an email to an address he thought belonged to de Blasio. And the person who received the email answered it with quotes criticizing Mamdani.

But now for an update on this story.

Many — including The New York Times and this newsletter — called the person who provided the quotes via email an “imposter.” That’s not exactly right.

Turns out, the person who answered the email and gave the critical quotes really is named Bill DeBlasio. He’s just not former-New-York-City-mayor Bill de Blasio. Semafor’s Brendan Ruberry and Max Tani reported, “He is, instead, a 59-year-old Long Island wine importer named Bill DeBlasio, who merely responded to an email from a journalist seeking his views on Democrat Zohran Mamdani’s policies.”