Hispanic Groups Break #1 Rule of Press

The U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Foundation and the Latino Coalition, which is headed by Hector Barreto, former SBA Administrator in the Bush Administration's first term, issued a joint press release supporting embattled Attorney General Alberto Gonzales last week.

However, according to Patricia Guadalupe, a contributor to the Washington Hispanic Newspaper, the coalition groups misspelled the Attorney General's name.  Guadalupe was interviewed this morning on WTOP News about the late and marginal support Hispanic groups have offered Gonzales in the U.S. Attorney firing scandal.

Neither group has the press release (original or corrected) on their website - so if you have it, please email it to me ([email protected]).

A cursory check on google for Alberto Gonzales (correct spelling) showed 2.9 million hits.  The most common way to misspell his name is "Gonzalez" and a google search came up with 883,000 hits.

RULE # 1 in Press - Always double-check for errors, especially important ones such as the correct spelling of a person's name that is central to a press release.

CORRECTION: This posting erroneously reported that the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce sent out the mistaken release, when it was in fact the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Foundation, a separate entity.  We regret the error.

UPDATE: The Latino Coalition says they never made such an error.