This problem has nothing directly to do with who/whom (a distinction that the SAT does not test).

You can’t just look at the single word following “by.” The object of the preposition is “them/those who did not approve it,” and the required word has to do with how it functions in this unit, which is a noun phrase headed by them/those.

The relative clause “who did not approve it” modifies them/those. But “them,” as a personal pronoun, virtually always stands alone in the noun phrase. It doesn’t take modifiers like the relative clause. I won’t get into a detailed analysis of “those," as modern accounts differ from a traditional analysis and the differences aren’t to the point here. Suffice it to say that “those” isn’t a personal pronoun and doesn’t have the same restriction.

> On Jan 5, 2015, at 9:34 AM, Jane Saral <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> 
> A recent SAT "ID the error" question reads:
> 
> Although it is widely regarded as a masterpiece now, when it was built
>                             A                                                  B
> 
> the Eiffel Tower was compared to a "ridiculous smokestack" by them who did
>                                                                                             C
> 
> not approve of it.        No error
>             D                       E
> 
> 
> C just sounds wrong.  I would say "by those who did not approve of it."  But isn't the "them/those" word the stand-alone O.P. of by, unaffected by the relative clause that follows?  This does not seem to be dealing with the who/whom question;  "who" is correctly the subject of "did not approve."  
> 
> So why is this an error? 
> 
> Jane Saral
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