XML parsing error: <unknown>:26:41: mismatched tag

Question

this is a wordpress installation. I have tried everything I can think of. It says the code is malformed. I even tried adding the tag to the feed-rss2.php

For some reason no matter what changes I make it does not matter. i know this is the right file because if I delete things the site gets weird

here is the raw code in the area where the validator says its not correct

<dc:creator><![CDATA[<?php the_author() ?></dc:creator>
    <![CDATA[<?php the_category_rss() ?>

You can clearly see right here that the category is not being opened and closed

here is the link to the validation of that php

Feed Validator

Answer 1

I'm not sure where you're defining this data...but you need to close your brackets:

<dc:creator><![CDATA[<?php the_author(); ?>]]></dc:creator>
                                           ^^^