Paper Apologizes For Publishing 'Assassinate Obama' Ad

WARREN, Pa. — A northwestern Pennsylvania newspaper is apologizing for running a classified advertisement calling for the assassination of President Barack Obama.

Warren Times Observer Publisher John Elchert says the ad appeared 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 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 "apologizes for the oversight."

Comments

[mychagall]

Sorry, apologizing for this oversight is not enough. The editors should have known exactly what is in the paper. They should be closed down permanently. No apology or excuse should be accepted.

[mychagall]

Actually, I meant the secret service!

[mychagall]

The government should prosecute these people and put them under lifetime surveillance by the FBI.

[Trueheart]

The staff didn't make the historical connection?
We are indeed living in the Age of Idiocracy.
It would be laughable if it weren't so deadly serious.

[corsair1917]

my 10 year nephew could make that connection­.... fire the ad staff pronto!

[escobar]

And they wonder why people aren't buying newspapers.

[mmaza]

Pennsylvania needs better schools.

[rabiddog6708]

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

Very telling about the state of the US educational system, that no one got the ad's message.

[JMcCoy]

Irresponsible. People, let's all examine our hearts. Why keep promoting such negativity. Our President was elected by the people and the election was fair. Those that didn't get their way now want to advocate such an act. Why? He will serve either 4 or 8 years and then he will be gone. We have to get back to our foundation. STOP WITH THE NEGATIVITY ALREADY!!!

[HyperInfluential]

Look in our hearts?!?! When did everybody forget that it's a crime to threaten the president? I'm sure that was quite clear during the Cold War, but now it seems like people honestly think somehow this was just a distasteful act of free speech or something. This was a serious crime, and the Secret Service will nip this person's "negativity" in the bud forthwith!

[lkjon]

Publish...­Talk....Ap­ologize...­.Does anyone THINK first??????

[LITU]

How ironic that a newspaper doesn't know historical relativity. What's next? Banks that don't know how to do bookkeeping?

[lunchlady]

We already have those, all the way up to the top.
The average citizen knows when they're making decisions that are going to put them in the red, but somehow our financial institutions and government didn't notice they were destroying our financial system until it was a done deal.
Or so they pretend. It was all probably a scheme for wealth creation for those trusted with the reins. As usual.

[ghostdance]

Technically that's not next, that was first...

[LITU]

Of course I knew that, hence, the snarky comment. But I admit my chronology was a bit off. My point was, though...

[SimianNation]

She's a screamer! Gotta love it!

[GOPHater]

The ad is one president too late.

[karma13612]

Wow, I'm usually the first person to yell 'conspiracy' when something happens that threatens our president, or smears him, etc.

I think Obama is the best President since Kennedy. I worked hard in the GOTV phase of his campaign.

But,

I really feel people have gone over the edge on this one.

If I was an overworked, underpaid, lowly person working for the newspaper, taking orders from people who wanted a classified listing, I would be in autopilot mode. I am terrible with history. I would never have made the connection! I might have made the same mistake and let it go. Maybe when I got home that night, I would have asked my husband who is a history buff, what did the phrase mean. By then, it would have been too late.

And I would have felt simply horrible for letting it get by me.

I still say this was a simple oversight, not some dastardly plot to hurt or frighten Obama.

Seriously, put your self in someone else's shoes who might have been clueless.

[mychagall]

What do you do for a living? Hopefully not anything that requires a brain. I would have noticed it the first second I saw it! It's not rocket science.

[You]

Did you read the article?

[HyperInfluential]

The article with the explanatory sentence indicating that these four presidents all had assassination in common? That article? The one that the staff at the ad desk could not possibly have seen?

Seriously, if someone popped up at your desk and said, "Quick, what do McKinley and Garfield have in common?" and you knew the answer, you probably watch too much History Channel.

[HyperInfluential]

May you be judged as kindly and fairly as you have judged these poor workers, who now may not even have a job at all because of the public outcry their mistake has caused.

Please, everyone, think of the newspaper staff's children. It doesn't sound like Warren County has all that many other jobs for these people to go to. It was a mistake. Let it go, and focus on the criminal who tricked these people and put their jobs at risk.

[normathumb]

I'll think of the presidents children and the rest of the nation at the same time. The best these people can claim is they were ignorent dupes. That being the case they ought not be involved in disseminating news.

[Mixpixlix]

Where is their sense of responsibility. Oversight my anal aperture!!! I'm so sick of money being the be all and end all of busines decisions. MSNBC is running a so called documentry by Rick Scott full of misleading and out of context comments regarding universal heathcare. I've e-mailed my protest and hope others are as well.

Media has a responsiblity to make sure that why they put out in the air or make availabale in print does no harm. This wasn't a news story about some group of nuts calling for assinations this was an AD and should never have appeared. We can all vote with our pocketbooks and boycott this newspaper and MSNBC until they take responsiblity for what appears in their media.