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

[DavidMcK]

That's what jails are for.

[Abycat]

Republican white men cannot accept the fact that the US has an African American President. Forget that this President is much smarter than the last one. They hate him. The people responsible for the ad should have their names mnade public. People like me would like to know.

[mychagall]

Excellent idea and they should also be fired!

[HyperInfluential]

Oh the person who placed the ad is going to jail. Placing such an ad is a crime, and the Secret Service probably already have the person in custody. Justice will be done, even if we never hear about it again, as is the SS custom. I think it would be better if they told us when they take these people down, but that is not their way. Maybe Sam Stein could get them to answer a direct question about it, to satisfy our curiosity and exonerate the newspaper, but the SS don't go bragging when they handle these types of threats.

[Cil]

I really don't see why this threat should be handled
any differently than the previous few which have in
fact been made public, however it is going to be
quite interesting to see if the SS and FBI will get
involved..­..........­.

As far as I am concerned, THIS IS A VERY SERIOUS
MATTER, and at a MINIMUM, THE PERSON OR
PERSONS RESPONSIBLE FOR PLACING THIS
AD SHOULD BE PROSECUTED, and the PUBLIC
SHOULD BE INFORMED!!!!!!!!!!

[grave-robber]

I don't know whether it really was an accident or not, but that is something that needs to be caught by editors.

Even though I disagree with Obama on most things, I would never wish unfortunate things to befall him.

[Taiyo]

Editors rarely, if ever, see the classifieds before they go to print .

[grave-robber]

Well, whoever it was that reviewed it should have looked into it, but I don't think anyone should press charges or lose their job.

[serena1313]

Apologizes? Apologizes! For heavens sake just how long or how much more or what will it take for a ground swell of people say stop already before someone else is hurt or dies. Words matter; they have consequences. It is not enough that our air waves are filled with thinly-veiled calls to arms from the usual fear mongering radio and cable talk show hosts including Limbaugh, Beck, Hannity, Malkin plus many others, and even US Congress representatives such as Michelle Bachman, who thinks we need a revolution, but now they are infiltrating the newspapers, too!

While an apology is nice, the ad should never have been published in the first place, however, I do credit the newspaper for taking action to correct the situation. Others would be wise to follow suit. But they are in denial, oblivious to the fact that making statements laced with inferences of violence, subtle or otherwise, do and will continue to incite acts of violence.

Re-member we are responsible for our own words and accountable for whatever follows as a result thereof. Likewise it is it is our responsibility to hold each other accountable, too.

So before an unfortunate, tragic incident occurs we, the people, must, loudly and clearly in no uncertain terms, tell them : "Enough already, stop it" because if we don't, who will? Until then everyone's -- yours, mine and people we know and love -- safety is at risk.

[Jerry Pecks]

And these types of freaks claim they care about America? Please. From day one they've shown zero respect for President Obama. We all supported Bush at first, before he went on to become one of the worst Presidents in our history. Anyone calling for the assassination of our President, no matter what party he/she belongs to, is simply a traitor to the republic.

[kev1000]

Perhaps people who run this newspaper might want to bother READING IT BEFORE PRINTING.

[alice09]

Out of business. There's is no excuse for this.
Disgraceful.

[HyperInfluential]

"Out of business", what are you talking about? They either participated in a criminal conspiracy and are going to jail, or they made a mistake!

This ad was a very serious crime, and people are just responding with flippancy, and saying they believe the paper was in on the crime, and it ought to go out of business as punishment. It makes me mad. If you honestly believe this newspaper was in on the crime, then you should want the entire staff to go to jail for ten years or more, as is our law, not just have their newspaper shut down, punishing whatever lowly staff and shareholders happen to depend on the newspaper for income without even knowing about the crime. WTF.

[3datty]

"apologizes"?

[rbndc]

The paper ran a classified ad that someone submitted. The newspaper didn't create the ad or write some story saying this about Obama. Plenty of positive, non-assass­ination-re­lated, comparisons have been made between Obama and Lincoln and Kennedy that I imagine the staff didn't pick up on the ad creator's intended message. I find the newspaper faultless in this, and they are probably mortified.

[gizmo64]

I don't think anything more needs to be made of this han has been .It might just make it worse and give some crazies ideas.Is it any worse than Beck ,Rush L,.Bachman­n,Bill O,Cheney,Libby and others that have made comments to lead others to think something like this is the norm

[barra]

DULLARD!

[GeoLee]

Most newspapers are now run on skeleton staffs and most of the news appears here first anyway. but the fact is, copy editors and folks who WERE educated enough to understand this very clear ad would have caught is when newspapers were running wiht competent and full staffs.

[KK80]

They know EXACTLY what they're doing by printing this. But I don't think these people understand what would happen in this country if that takes place.....­.they really don't!

[Vegan Valorie]

I agree. Biden as a president is a very scary idea.

[HyperInfluential]

I don't think YOU understand that this is not like the watermelon picture or the monkey picture or Rush Limbaugh's very carefully parsed statements. This is one of those things that is actually against the law to say. If you're going to accuse the entire newspaper staff of participating in this serious crime, our justice system demands you have some evidence to back that up.

[andycan]

If you believe this bunk, you'll believe anything.
This rag should be prosecuted for incitation to murder!

[SiberianRat]

Agreed! I bet they started the swine flu epidemic too! OMG, it makes so much sense now--they're secretly working for the North Korean branch of Al Qaeda! I bet if we dig deep enough, we'll find out that they're behind the chupacabra! I bet they are!!

[mychagall]

Well put!

[Cogs]

The knucklehead who placed this ad is about to have a lot of trouble come knocking at the door.

[kevenseven]

Very quickly and without remorse this chucklehead is going to be explaining himself to the SS.

[Jerry Pecks]

Wrong century Mcfly.

[Bude]

Never in my life have I heard so much talk of assassinating our president as I do now. That kind of talk was once taboo, now I hear it regularly. There was a time when people wouldn't even joke about such a thing out of fear of being arrested, but now we have knuckleheads running ads in newspapers. Perhaps the feds need to scoop-up one of these clowns. I just don't know.

[Vegan Valorie]

Really? I haven't heard much. All I can think of other than this are the "Biden 09" bumper stickers I see around town.

[HyperInfluential]

Oh, most certainly the person who placed the ad has committed a crime, and is going to jail for a long, long time. I'm just saying I highly doubt the newspaper was deliberately abetting this crime, when it's so much more reasonable to believe they honestly just didn't pay attention to this innocuous-seeming classified ad.

[CitizenIndie]

Figures. The part of Pennsylvania where they cling to guns and religion.

Pennsyltucky.

[colbyrem]

I think you're thinking of Murtha's part of Pennsylvan­ia.....

[grave-robber]

ahh snap!