Pa. newspaper: Sorry we published letter calling for Obama's execution

A Pennsylvania newspaper has apologized for publishing a letter to the editor calling for President Barack Obama to be executed.

The Daily Item of Sunbury’s editorial board wrote Thursday that it “bungled the Obama attack letter” and that “no bells went off when the editor handling the letter read it and placed it on the opinion page.”


“The procedure at The Daily Item is for the person editing letters to review the content for offensive language and ad hominem attacks,” the paper wrote. “Publication is, however, a signal that the opinion is not one we would readily suppress, which can accurately be interpreted as an endorsement of acceptability — much to our chagrin in this instance.”

The original letter, written by W. Richard Stover of Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, was published on Monday. It bemoaned the president’s failure to defeat the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant after the terrorist group captured Ramadi, the capital of Iraq’s largest province by land area.

“To the families of those fallen heros [sic] whose blood lies on the sands of Iraq; don’t you think it might be time to rise up against an administration who has adequately demonstrated their gross incompetence?” Stover’s letter read. “I think the appropriate, and politically correct, term is regime change. Forgive me for being blunt, but throughout history this has previously been accompanied by execution by guillotine, firing squad, public hanging.”

“When society dictates,” Stover added, “the end always justifies the means, otherwise the actionwould [sic] not be taken.”

The nearly 78-year-old paper wrote that it was prompted to apologize by reader outrage.

“Our readers and critics have reacted in force, as they should have. We accept their judgment and embrace the calls for heightened awareness and a higher standard for civil discourse.”

“We will strive to do better in the future.”