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

[vueartist]

AND PEOPLE WANT TO KNOW WHY NEWSPAPERS ARE FAILING - THIS IS A FAILURE OF "JOURNALISM" & BIG MEDIA. PUT THESE IRRESPONSIBLE PEOPLE OUT OF BUSINESS!!!

[Disuberence]

Whoever made that add is lucky GWB isn't still in office. He'd already be soaking wet in Gitmo.

[bentheimmigrant]

Now now... We all know campaign donors get special treatment.

[tel8034]

THIS WAS NOT A MISTAKE .............

Typical rethuglican ploy .................. Put out something offensive which they know will be seen be millions of people, then pull it back, and issue a FAKE apology .............

The damage is ALREADY done, their offensive message is ALREADY out, they know that the MSM will talk about it for a few days, thereby prolonging the roll out of their offensive material, after which they sit back, have a laugh, and then pat themselves on the back.

[Knowledgeseeker]

some years ago a TV station in Venezuela tried to do the same thing to Chavez

[Trueheart]

More details please???

[fiorastar]

Who owns the paper and what is their political viewpoint?

[colbyrem]

They are definitely for Republicans. You could tell the minute Obama won the election.

[mollyknows]

in response to genia...michigan is a democratic state full of democrats...i also know the party who needs to go out and vote is democrats which is made up of mostly minorities...(democrat means to m e how can the government take care of me ? People learn how to take care of yourself. i only want my government to protect me and provide a good financial future..We have so many problems but all people (democrats) want is legalized gay marriage and abortion rights! how about the death penalty for all states and tough laws on criminals!! they have more rights than us!! send them to jail and throw away the key!!

[HyperInfluential]

OK I call BS on all of you people who so smugly insist that the newspaper had to be in on the crime, because nobody could be so stupid as to not realize that the thing connecting the four presidents was murder. That is just not realistic. All of us had the benefit of the explanatory sentence in the article, telling us what the connection was. I am not ashamed to admit that I did not remember Garfield and McKinley were killed, and that would have thrown off my understanding of the list, leading me to conclude that this was a well-meaning message and the ad-placer simply admired these four presidents the most.

I would not have gotten the significance of that list if it crossed my desk in the course of a workday. You wouldn't have noticed it either. Everyone at that paper is at least as intelligent as a random sample of people on this board, and nobody noticed it. Because it's a tiny classified ad with no swear words in it. Who would pay attention to it at all, except bored readers? Obviously in a perfect world the editor would scrutinize each ad and make sure every word in the paper was perfect, but that's not humanly possible.

Don't let the real criminal who placed the ad use the newspaper as a scapegoat. The newspaper staff are victims of fraud here, not perpetrators of treason.

[sagebrush5]

Oh come on. Yes, I would have noticed it. That newspaper is a victim of fraud??? Newspapers are supposed to be the social, political and cultural observers...they don't do DUH...or at least they aren't supposed to.

[grave-robber]

Whether or not that is what the newspapers are supposed to do, how much expertise do you think there is in a small town such as where this was from.

[Paulli]

I think you're confusing reporters and editors with copy and layout people. Really two very different occupations, in terms of intellectual observation. A guy pushing text and boxes around on a screen is not really concerned with the content.

[HyperInfluential]

If you were a teenage intern sitting at the ad desk taking copy all day, you wouldn't pay attention to ANY of the ads, because your job would just be to make sure everything was spelled right and in its proper column inch. There is no way that this message would have raised alarm bells with you unless you happened to be a history hobbyist and were familiar with both Garfield and McKinley off the top of your head!

So fine, if you want to claim that when you hear the names Garfield and McKinley, you immediately remember that they were the less-famous assassinated presidents, and that therefore, when put with Kennedy and Lincoln, you would have instantly spotted the death threat, then go ahead. You, a history buff, knew that right away. Congratulations. Most people would have to be reminded, and there is no reason why such a reminder would come about during the day at a newspaper ad copy desk!

Blame the criminal who placed this ad, not the newspaper that screwed up and didn't catch his/her sinister coded threat. There is no way the editor can read every single classified ad every day. Of course, now that we know criminals are doing this, someone should be hired specifically to check for these things, but since this was the first time, nobody at the paper can be blamed.

[Opygollopy]

Two things about your blog, 1. The connection to all these presidents was visible immediately without the statement (a grade l0 student could have made the connection) and 2. Newspapers proof read everything that goes into their papers. They are either not doing their job or they are not very intelligent. Either way, they are responsible for what they print especially if it is going to be this inflammatory.

[jesuslovesObama]

It's just hard to believe that the paper could have been so clueless to miss the obvious context of the message.

[karma13612]

I agree with Hyperinfluential. For heavens sake, I would not have made the connection either. And when you are just busy getting the copy finished for the deadline, you go into autopilot mode and aren't necessarily critiquing the content. If it is a classified ad, then the person who is listing the ad is caring about the content, not the paper.

It would have missed all the normal editing filters for bad words, etc.

Please people, put yourself in the shoes of the person who was simply doing their job. If they weren't a history buff, they wouldn't have made the connection! Period.

Maybe all newspaper will need to fact check, and fully research anything pertaining to Obama from now on, regardless of where in the paper it will be (editorial, classified, actual news article). That would be my decision going forward, after having this happen.

[Fromageball]

I didn't remember McKinley, but Kennedy and Lincoln everyone should know.

[Paulli]

Yes, they're known as great and influential Presidents. Positive comparisons have been drawn between Lincoln and Obama, and Kennedy and Obama. Clearly these weren't code for the parts of the legacy that weren't in their control.

Just sayin'. Obviously the poster of the ad will be appropriately dealt with.

[rsprags]

These guys are such losers and they are trying to invoke anger in the white male that some government entities are discriminating against them. Remember, this is the carpetbagger politics which happen during reconstruction, Jim Crow, Reaganomics, and the Civil Rights era of 60-70 Problem with this however, is you better be careful what you unleash on others because it may comeback to haunt you!

[PoliticalEnnui]

Considering the level of Obama's popularity nationwide, it's very tempting to use this political capital to string up a few treasonous neo-cons to send a message. By their own reckoning, this is the only message that really gets through.

[Caymus77]

How the hell can anyone working for a newspaper be ignorant of Lincoln's and Kennedy's assasinations? Just those two names should have raised a red flag. I can forgive them for being ignorant of Garfield and McKinley,but Lincoln and Kennedy? WTF?

This is unacceptable and the apology is unacceptable if it wasn't in big letter headlines on the front page of the newspaper.

[HyperInfluential]

Many people have compared Obama to both Lincoln (also from Illinios) and Kennedy (also an amazing speaker and inspiration) for years now! There've even been books about it and everything! If you didn't happen to know that Garfield and McKinley were also assassinated, you wold not have thought anything of this list, which is exactly what the criminal counted on when he tricked this newspaper into printing this ad. Don't blame the paper! Trust me, local newspapers are having a hard enough time as it is without secretly engaging in treason.

[Promisin1]

HyperInfluential your 5 or 6 comments on this matter, while well written, appear to me to be based on an assumption that if most people are like you then they would not have recognized that the other 2 presidents Garfield and McKinley were assassinated. Huge leap to me. In my opinion, the very reason why newspapers are having a hard time is that they have long ago gotten a way from vetting articles from the AP and other less than credible sources. In this hi-tech age, the public can often find out the truth by simply googling. Now, they are not even copy editing ads. Too bad that the newspaper industry is a dying medium, however, they have no one to blame ut themselves.

[colbyrem]

I have Friday's paper - I am a subscriber from Warren County and it was on page 2 that the apology ran. Shocking isn't it!!

[Annette Weir]

It is understandable that editors do not spend their day reading ads, but someone needs to. Where is the control of what goes into the paper. This means a terrorist, a paedaphile or someone with just a grudge against someone such as Obama can write whatever they like, maybe whatever insinuation they like, make whatever deep message they wish and NO ONE EDITS IT. I find this very very scary, what will these such people be able to print, advertise and get away with next ?????

[HyperInfluential]

You're being sarcastic, but it brings up a good point. We've known for years that criminals exploit classified ads to send coded messages to each other, like "It's snowing in New Jersey" to mean a big drug shipment is coming in, or something. I like to believe the security agencies have a news clipping service send them ads that aren't advertising anything, and then they look them over. Or maybe they just wait for readers to call in and say, hey, someone just put a threat in the classifieds.

But yeah, there probably should be some computer whose job it is to read all the classifieds and notice patterns and flag weird ads for human review, and suchlike. It's a huge security hole, since you can place ads in cash and just leave your message with no trace-back to yourself. Well, so this criminal probably thought anyway. If they really want to find you, they'll find you. The guy must have walked by a thousand CCTV cams on his way to "anonymously" place this ad.

[SF13]

All the newspapers dying financially and THIS one is still in business? Hopefully NOT for long !

[BigAl72]

Shameful. I hope they report the culprit from being arrested to being sentenced.

[sdlefty]

This is why newspapers are going out of business. History, Facts what are those? They are idiots and need to be run out of business for advocating the assasination of the POTUS!

[Oonagh]

All ads have to be accepted by someone at the newspaper..... this is not bad taste or bad judgment it is way worse than that.. that newspaper should be shut down.

[zanzig]

Probably some 18 year old in the copy/classifieds department. If they were taught in the American education system, it is no wonder that they did not make the connection between the names; more than likely didn't even realise they were Presidents. It is ignorance rather than bad taste or bad judgment, but the editor or senior in charge of the classifieds should certainly be sacked.

[HyperInfluential]

Yeah, they probably should have had a policy like, if an ad mentions any public figure, the editor's got to review it before it goes to print. I'm sure that will be a new rule in local papers all across the country from now on. Nobody's going to want to pull a Warren County and get their paper shut down over a classified ad. Plus, if anyone does find a threatening ad like this, they must report it immediately so the criminal can be caught before precious time goes by that they could be fleeing in.

[colbyrem]

Amazing you should say that! As a member of Warren County (where this paper is published in NW PA) we have always wondered if they have a proof reader at this paper!! I agree - I can't believe they actually ran it....