A Mercury News spokesman admits “it was basically an error” when a political action committee, that is paying to have the Merc’s new parent company send out its fundraising e-mails, put the newspaper’s logo on the top of the e-mail, according to San Jose’s alt-weekly Metro. The Merc’s logo appeared atop a letter from thte Public Campaign Action Fund, which wants the government to fund election campaigns. Metro said the presence of the Merc’s logo atop the letter made it look as if the paper was editorializing in favor of such public funding. Merc spokesman Dan Breeden, in admitting the error, said that the e-mail would have been rejected for not being clearly identified as an ad if anyone at the paper had actually seen it.