Two days ago I shared news of a local paper in Pennsylvania that had printed a Memorial Day letter to the Editor calling for "regime change" with possible executions of President Obama and members of his administration. The response was awesome, with many Kossacks writing their own letters to the paper and sharing them in the discussion thread. Seems like you probably helped bring about a great end to this story! I'll supply some links below, but be aware that the paper's site allows you only five free page views per month, so choose which pages you want to view.
The local community responded as well, and the Sunbury Daily Item has printed six letters objecting strongly to the "regime change" letter. In addition, yesterday, the paper did two things - take down the offending letter from the website, and post this note:
Reader response
Updated: May 27, 2015 - 11:29 am
EDITOR'S NOTE: The Daily Item received more than 100 Letters to the Editor in response to a Monday Letter to the Editor. Here is a sampling of the letters received from around the nation.
.
They posted a
selection of the letters they received - see if yours is there!
Today, the Daily Item published an editorial apologizing for printing the crucial paragraphs of the "regime change" letter. The editorial includes some attempts at face-saving, understandably enough, but on the whole I think it is a good response::
WE BUNGLED THE OBAMA ATTACK LETTER
There is no excuse for the letter The Daily Item published on Memorial Day. We did something we shouldn’t have and the readers who called us on it deserve accountability.
. . .
Nearly a decade of provocative and divisive rhetoric may have inured us to language that calls the president of the United States “the coward-in-chief” and the disrespectful use of the president’s first name. Both those elements are common to corners of the mediascape, having been uttered by commentators and candidates for president.
But we should have recognized that the final two metaphorical paragraphs of the Ramadi letter were inescapably an incitement to have the chief executive of our government executed. They should have been deleted.
. . .
Our readers and critics have reacted in force, as they should have. We accept their judgment and embrace the calls for heightened awareness and a higher standard for civil discourse.
The Daily Item apologizes for our failure to catch and remove the inappropriate paragraphs in the letter directed at President Obama. We will strive to do better in the future.
If you feel moved to let the Daily Item know what you think about its handling of this mistake,
you can do it here.
