… but less accurate.

Jennifer Siebel and her boyfriend, the politician. Photo by Luke Thomas.

Is one of the writers at SFist.com a jilted ex-lover of Jennifer Siebel, a disgruntled former employee, or perhaps just a misguided ex-staffer of the National Enquirer? Because for some reason the site is very much preoccupied with the need to make fun of her and belittle her as just some plaything of Mayor Newsom’s — and I’m not sure why.

The site looked absolutely foolish on Friday when it ran with the headline: “Newsom Dumps Actress Siebel.” SFist Editor Brock Keeling breathlessly declared, “Rumors have been circulating, but we just got word that, yes, Mayor Gavin Newsom ended his partnership with actress and SFist’s favorite commenter, Jennifer Siebel, a little over two weeks ago. Sob.”

No sources, no reasons, no dates, no nothing — but apparently they “just got word.” Please. Even the tabloids cite sources, even if they are anonymous. And why the rush to print on something that’s not well verified if the incident happened, as SFist claims, “over two weeks ago”? Did Brock even bother to ask Newsom’s office, or Ms. Siebel herself (who is easy to contact.)

Well, Luke Thomas of Fog City Journal went straight to the source, and got the real story.

At 5:15, pm, approximately four hours after the SFist item appeared, Mr. Thomas wrote that he received the following BlackBerry message from Jennifer just minutes earlier:

“Of course we haven’t split. What’s wrong with SFist? I have been in Los Angeles working on a TV show. Am with him [Newsom] right now.”

If this is the quality of their reporting, I kind of think they’re going to be loosing a lot of their readers. That’s too bad because SFist could be an excellent source for trustworthy journalism in SF.

• Further Reading: “Gaviffer NOT Dunzo” [Fogcityjournal.com]
• Further Reading: “Newsom Dumps Actress Siebel” [sfist.com]