California Post Stealth Edits Article After Reporter Admits Editors ‘Fudged’ Story About Gavin Newsom

David Crane/The Orange County Register via AP, File

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) “didn’t even know” he had a 5,000 bottle wine cellar in his house? That would be a stunning admission by a wealthy politician that he is completely out-of-touch with the lives of common Americans — if it were true.

On Wednesday, an article by Titus Wu at the California Post reported on Newsom and his wife Jennifer Siebel Newsom putting up their “$7.5 million Sacramento-area residence” for sale as his time as governor comes to a close and he is reportedly preparing for an expected presidential run.

The original headline for the article was “Gavin Newsom claims he ‘didn’t even know’ about 5,000-bottle wine cellar at his $7.5M home,” and that was how it was captioned on X by both the California Post and its sister publication, the New York Post, which has a significantly larger audience on the platform of more than 4 million followers compared to the West Coast site having just under 60,000.

The first paragraph of the article originally read as follows, according to an internet archive of the page:

California Gov. Gavin Newsom and wife Jennifer Siebel Newsom are selling their $7.5 million Sacramento-area residence — yet the governor claims he was barely aware of one of the home’s key amenities.

However, the text of the article makes clear that what Newsom “didn’t even know” about his home was the specific capacity of that wine cellar, not the existence of it:

At a press conference, the winemaker-turned-pol was put on the spot about whether he even filled the home’s massive 5,000 bottle wine cellar.

“Are you serious? Really?” the Democrat asked, stunned.

“No, I never filled it. I didn’t even know I had that much.”

“I literally didn’t even know,” the governor added, claiming he only found out that detail about his own home from the news.

“By the way, I put books in there,” Newsom claimed.

It should also be noted that it is a bit weird to use the word “claimed” about Newsom putting books in the wine cellar when at least three photos from the Zillow listing do in fact show shelves filled with books and vastly outnumbering the wine bottles. Wu’s article linked to the Zillow listing and included two photos of the wine cellar from it, including the one below.

Screenshot via Zillow.

At some point over the past few days, the article was updated to add a reference to “a detail” about Newsom’s home, changing the headline to “Gavin Newsom claims he ‘didn’t even know’ detail about 5,000-bottle wine cellar at his $7.5M home,” and the first paragraph as follows:

California Gov. Gavin Newsom and wife Jennifer Siebel Newsom are selling their $7.5 million Sacramento-area residence — yet the governor claims he was barely aware of a detail of one of the home’s key amenities.

The only indication any change was made was fine-print text stating that the article was “Updated Aug. 27, 2026, 9:04 pm PDT,” but the exact nature of the update or correction is not specified anywhere on the page.

Screenshot via California Post.

The article’s URL still reflects the original framing of Newsom being “unaware of massive wine cellar” (https://nypost.com/2026/08/26/us-news/gavin-newsom-says-he-was-unaware-of-massive-wine-cellar-in-7-5m-home/).

According to Newsom’s communications director, Izzy Gardon, the issues with the article run even deeper. He posted several tweets blasting the article as “FALSE” and included screenshots of an email from Wu admitting problems with the headline.

Wrote Gardon:

BIG DEAL: You may have seen a “viral” story today claiming Gavin Newsom “didn’t know” about a wine cellar in his house.

IT’S FALSE! The California Post reporter admitted to me in writing that his editor “fudged” the story to make it seem that way… and RW media is now spreading the FALSE story as fact.

This is how the Murdoch Misinformation Machine works — manufacture the narrative, spread it everywhere, & watch mainstream media and Twitter fall for it.

And to be clear to reporters I regularly work with: I would never normally share private background correspondence with a reporter. I’m only doing so here because this particular outlet previously published my emails. I’m following *their* own standards here. People deserve to see what actually happened.

I also gave the “reporter” and his “editors” over 20 hours to make this simple correction before being forced to publish this response

The text of the screenshotted email from Wu read:

Izzy,

Thanks for reaching out. I’ve flagged this to my editors. We play around with headlines a bit here at The Post, but I’ve noted your concern to my higher-ups. In the body of my story, I did originally make clear it was the 5,000 figure that Gov. Newsom was not aware of, not the existence itself, but it seems one of my editors fudged the story up a bit to make it seem he was unaware…so also asking them if I can fix that. Thanks.

Neither the New York Post nor the California Post have deleted their original tweets framing the story as Newsom not knowing about the wine cellar itself, despite a furious tweet from Gardon sharing the email from Wu again, declaring the story as “false” because “[y]our own reporter admitted it to me,” and demanding that the account “DELETE YOUR TWEET!”

Multiple conservative politicians and media personalities shared the original framing of the article, lambasting Newsom for being “out of touch” and exhibiting an “elite disconnect.”

Gardon posted replies to many of them, pointing out the story was “false” and “fake news” and challenging them to delete their tweets. A sampling of Gardon’s replies is below. So far, it does not appear any of these accounts have deleted their posts or noted any corrections.

A spokesperson for the California Post said it was “disappointing” the reporter’s message was publicly shared.

“In good faith, The California Post corrected an issue the Governor’s office had with a story when it was brought to our attention. We are committed to accuracy,” spokesperson Alison Rudnick said in a statement to Mediaite.

“It is disappointing that a private email exchange with a young reporter was publicly shared to discredit them rather than address the substance of the story,” she added. “We believe reporters should be allowed to do their jobs without having private correspondence weaponized against them.”

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