SAN FRANCISCO -- Comments critical of opponents of San Francisco’s mayor that appeared on the blog of a local news website were penned by his press secretary under an assumed name.
Comments on SFist signed by John Nelson originated from the IP address of the home computer belonging to Newsom’s press secretary, Peter Ragone, the website reports.
Some of the postings from Ragone’s computer also target ABC-7 reporter Dan Noyes, who has recently been very critical of Mayor Newsom.
Ragone initially denied the claims, insisting a close friends posted the remarks. KCBS’ Barbara Taylor reports Ragone has since owned up to the posts and promised to stop using a nom de plume on the Internet for work-related posts.
The disclosure prompted action from Board of Supervisor's President Aaron Peskin to propose rules of conduct for city press officers.
“I will be promulgating a resolution establishing standards for the conduct of the city's public information officers, one and all,” Peskin said at a supervisors meeting Tuesday.
Newsom said he was not pleased with Ragone’s behavior, but suggested it was a trivial matter when questioned at a Global Climate Summit today.
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