Pennsylvania newspaper is really sorry for using Memorial Day to suggest Obama's execution


The Sunbury, Pennsylvania, Daily Item issued an apology Thursday for printing a letter to the editor that called for President Obama's execution on Memorial Day.
Lewisburg resident W. Richard Stover, author of the letter, wrote that it was "time to rise up against an administration who has adequately demonstrated their gross incompetence." Stover adds that the needed "regime change" has "previously been accompanied by execution by guillotine, firing squad, [or] public hanging." Stover's letter was critical of Obama's handling of the ISIS situation in Iraq and the fall of Ramadi.
In its apology Thursday, the Daily Item said there was "no excuse" for its printing the letter. "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," the newspaper wrote. "They should have been deleted."
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The Daily Item also admitted its staffers' shortcomings, adding that the reason the letter was published was that "no bells went off when the editor handling the letter read it and placed it on the opinion page."
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Meghan DeMaria is a staff writer at TheWeek.com. She has previously worked for USA Today and Marie Claire.
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