[Garth]

A small-town newspaper is apologising for running a classified advertisement calling for the assassination of President Barack Obama.

Warren Times Observer Publisher John Elchert says the ad appeared on Thursday. It read: "May Obama follow in the steps of Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley and Kennedy!" The four presidents were all assassinated.


Elchert tells The Associated Press that the newspaper's advertising staff didn't make the historical connection.


He says the northwestern Pennsylvania newspaper turned information over to police and that the Secret Service is investigating the person who placed the ad.


A note in Friday's paper says the newspaper "apologises for the oversight".


http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/world/5616680/paper-sorry-obama-assassination-ad/


Did ANY of their staff go to school? NOBODY made the connection between Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley and Kennedy?

I think "oversight" would have to be the understatement of the century!

 

[Seamus Lab]

Sickening.

This was published on the newspaper's front page of their website:

An errant classified "personal" ad which appeared in Thursday's Times Observer has drawn the attention of law enforcement officials.

A person from Warren placed the ad, which apparently alludes to the wish that President Obama meet an untimely end by linking him with four assassinated presidents. The ad representative didn't make the connection among the four other presidents mentioned and mistakenly allowed the ad to run.

Upon realizing the mistake early Thursday morning, the ad was immediately discontinued and the identity of the person who placed the ad was turned over to Warren City Police as per newspaper policy. The local police department forwarded the information to federal authorities, as per department policy.

The Times Observer apologizes for the oversight.

 

[kiddsmom]

Probably because the paper is outsourced to India. My brother gets the Orange County Register and says that paper is now a big joke. They apparently just run spell check and send it to print.

 

[Golfgirlrobin]

My guess is they had somebody sitting there checking spelling, counting the number of lines to see they were charged properly, and nothing else. If all you do is proofread a hundred ads, it's easy to skip content entirely.

You do have to wonder what kind of thought process goes into deciding to contact a paper to run something stupid like that. How was that ever going to be a good idea.

 

[Garth]

Probably because the paper is outsourced to India. My brother gets the Orange County Register and says that paper is now a big joke. They apparently just run spell check and send it to print.

Ah that figures!

Is there any kind of federal charges that could be brought against the papers owners?

 

[Golfgirlrobin]

Ah that figures!

Is there any kind of federal charges that could be brought against the papers owners?

For what? Bad proofreading? It's called a mistake. You fix it, you apologize and you try really hard not to do it again. There was no actual threat made, and even if there had been, it wasn't the paper who made it.

 

[Delmonico]

And that is one of the reasons the newspaper industry is in so much trouble, a poor quality product.