Wow. How did the editors let this one slide through?
The Warren, Pa., Times Observer ran a personal ad in its classified section that reads, “May Obama fall in the footsteps of Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley and Kennedy.”
All of those former presidents, of course, were assassinated while in office.
Timothy M. Gay, of Vienna, Va. responded to the editorial slip saying:
Sadly, it’s not a coincidence that the story about the Warren Times-Observer’s inadvertent publication of an ad advocating President Obama’s assassination broke the same week that an abortion doctor was murdered and that certain right-wingers branded Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor a racist. All three are symptoms of the same deadly disease: Ignorance begets intolerance, which too often triggers violent words and actions.
Kudos to you, Mr. Gay. We couldn’t agree more.
As you might expect, the ad set off a firestorm in the blogosphere. Here’s a snip from the DailyKos.com:
In our conversation with the publisher, John Elchert, he indicated that his paper was sorry that the ad was published. Today, however, there is no retraction and no apology.
If you believe an apology is in order, you can contact Mr. Elchert at 814-726-1560 or jelchert@timesobserver.com.
…
“It is unfortunate that it made it to press,” said Elchert. “The person who took the ad didn’t recognize the significance of the names. We cancelled the ad and turned the information over to the authorities.”
What do you think the newspaper should do?
