Posted on 09/25/2009 11:05:31 AM PDT by Rennes Templar
A day after former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin made her international debut at a Hong Kong investors conference, an Alaska newspaper apologized for a headline that ended up on the front page. Above a small photo of Palin near the bottom of Page One of Wednesday's Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, the headline read, "A broad in Asia." The headline was apparently written intentionally and was not simply an error.
News-Miner managing editor Rod Boyce apologized later that afternoon for the "offensive language," noting on the paper's Web site that while the News-Miner had strong disagreements with Palin, it has thus far treated her with civility.
-snip-
The letter:
The Daily News-Miner has had its agreements and disagreements with now-former Gov. Sarah Palin at various points during her time serving the state of Alaska. We have tried to maintain respect for the office of governor and to be generally civil when discussing Mrs. Palin, her policies and the actions she took while serving as governor. The same has been true for the time since she left office.
Today I must apologize to Mrs. Palin personally and on behalf of the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner for the choice of words used on the bottom of Wednesdays front page regarding her speaking engagement in Hong Kong this week to a group of global investors.
We used offensive language A broad in Asia above a small photograph of the former governor to direct readers inside the newspaper to a full story of her Hong Kong appearance.
There can be no argument that our use of the word broad is anything but offensive. To use this word to describe someone of the stature of the former governor who is also the former vice presidential nominee of the Republican Party only adds to the anger that many people appropriately feel.
It wasnt all that long ago that I wrote a column highly critical of Mrs. Palin for not agreeing to meet again with the editorial board of the Daily News-Miner. I used forceful language to explain my belief about why she would not meet with the editorial board. I did so, however, with civil language. It was a tough column; many people didnt like it, though many others did. I bring up that column as a way of noting that there is a right way to disagree, a proper way to treat people.
Theres widespread belief that too much meanness exists in political discourse today. The media, already held in low regard, need to be extremely wary of that meanness slopping over into their own work. I am responsible for the content of this newspaper and need to ensure that our employees adhere to acceptable standards of decency.
I will say it clearly again now: We made a terrible mistake.
Mrs. Palin, please accept this apology from the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner.
And please accept it from me.
I also apologize to our readers, many of whom have been devoted to this newspaper for years and who deserve better.
Rod Boyce is managing editor of the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
Clearly they are sexist.
She’s been called worse.
Libs are ridiculous!
Wonder what happened.
That’s funny. I bet she laughed about it.
When I lived in Fairbanks, the News Miner was a decent, conservative newspaper. Then the scum and sleaze from the lower 48 started oozing its way into the Alaskan interior.
Oh, so this newspaper received a huge volume of angry phone calls and decided to change course? Not likely. Losing money often result in behavior like this. Anyone really believe this newspaper is actually sorry?
Where I used to work, the company was growing fast, and people were getting promoted very quickly. A favorite line was “Be nice to me, I might be your boss tomorrow.”
To the editor of the News-Miner: “Be nice to former Governor Palin, she might be in Washington when you bailout request comes up....”
hh
Maybe it was supposed to read “Abroad in Asia”?
“The headline was apparently written intentionally and was not simply an error”
Wow. I’d been willing to give them the benefit of the doubt, thinking perhaps it was an unintentional mistake (words sometimes do get left out of text inadvertantly). But for it to be intentional is inexcusable.
Anyone who believes that this would be an appropriate way to refer to any female needs to be replaced at the newspaper. Apologies are great but they are not sufficient in this case.
Did she complain about it?

Just don't go near her offspring if you want to keep your arms intact.
I was going to tell Rod that maybe he’ll write better headlines after his 13th birthday but I see from his bio that he’s 47 years old. As a friend of mine used to say is it 47 years or one year 47 times?
The left is usually more touchy about using terms like “broad”, must have been making their heads spin on whether to complain about a woman being called that and liking that it was directed at Palin.
Threats of subscriber and advertiser cancellations...works wonders on small newspapers run by small minds!!!

"I don't know how many time I've told those boys, never call chicks broads."
I wonder if they would have refered to Hillary the same way?
This is like a serial killer apologizing for littering once.
Wonder what happened."
They probably heard lots of flak from their readers.
Plenty of people in Alaska have very high regard for Sarah Palin.
I join them in my respect for her!!!
Your post conjures up images of “The Exorcist”.
“Strange. A real apology.
Wonder what happened”
Perhaps, it dawned on them that women do most of the household bill paying — including making subscription payments.
Not only is this ridiculous, it is dumb on its face, everyone knows the b was not capital, meaning out of the country, in place of Abroad. This is Political Corruption gone wild, even when the editor or spell check is not functioning correctly.
Yet another example of the childishness of the left. The fact that they are currently in charge should be enough to scare anyone.
At least the "Parrot" is not around, I think of others on the other side of the "Isle" of which this might fit....
An old friend of mine relayed a story of his Uncle in his younger years. He lived in a below ground apartment with view of ground level. He had an aunt, or some neighborhood busybody coming by to visit him quite often. Well, he let his opinion of this lady be known when she left, with the parrot their. Well, the parrot picked up on the verbiage. Sure enough when she walked by the window: "rawwwhhh Fat @$$ rawwhhh Fat @$$....
Just one of the many things to love about Sarah, is her knack for bringing out the WORST in liberals.
Okay, here it is. I think misogynists and racists join the liberal cause BECAUSE they are women and race haters who imagine that joining with the left will act as a control on their angry, seething natures. Ted Turner, George Soros, and Ted Kennedy spring immediately to mind.
It made it to the front page. Will anyone be fired?
I’ll throw my agreement in with the posts that recognize this as a real apology. While the Editor and the author of the mistake reveal the true political leaning of the Newsminer, I think the apology is well written, even if it is an attempt to save subscriptions. There are very few ways to say I am wrong, my behavior was wrong, there is no excuse and I am sorry. I believe they thoroughly covered all these and one really can’t ask for more than that. Except the resignation of the idiot who wrote the headline.
I feel your anger, but as apologies go, that one was right on. Got to give the man credit. It’s not one of those, “I apologize to anybody who was offended.” Did not make excuses. Did not turn into a second, left-hand insult.
Pretty classy, actually.
There’s nothing to say, and Mrs. Palin will surely say it, but: Apology accepted.
Wayta go, Rod, for manning-up and doing the right thing.
I think they were using a play on words, yes?
TRY READING THE ARTICLE.
The editor flat out admits it was DELIBERATELY stated as a “broad”, i.e “bitch” in the headline.
Did I really need a < /sarc> tag after that reply?
Any questions, Dumb@ss?
Theres widespread belief that too much meanness exists in political discourse today. The media, already held in low regard, need to be extremely wary of that meanness slopping over into their own work.
I am responsible for the content of this newspaper and need to ensure that our employees adhere to acceptable standards of decency.
It's not about bad manners, Dumb@ss...it's about bias.
It's always easier to ask forgiveness than permission, you jerkweed.
Rod Boyce is should no longer be managing editor of the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner.
The end needed fixin'.
It's not about bad manners . . . it's about bias.Theres widespread belief that too much meanness exists in political discourse today. The media, already held in low regard, need to be extremely wary of that meanness slopping over into their own work.
With respect, not so. Everyone has his own perspective, and it is absurd to be surprised to learn that that includes people who selected themselves to be journalists. People who, if asked in college, would have said that they wanted to "make a difference."The fault lies not with the journalist who wants to indoctrinate, it lies with the sheeple who sucker for the con that journalism which claims to be objective is, or even could be, objective. That is absurd on its face because subjectivity is simply the assumption of one's own objectivity.
So self-proclaimed objectivity is an oxymoron. Yet, I confess, it took me 'til I was almost 40 to stop taking the "objective journalism" propaganda at face value. Embarrassing, in retrospect . . .
It would be nice if children were taught about the absurdity of "journalistic objectivity" in school - but it's hard to see how that could be possible when the teachers have bought the con themselves.
Further elucidation here.
They probably gave the editor responsible for it a bonus
No way!
I would hope so. Rule of funny should be its own excuse.
"Never say you'rer sorry. It's a sign of weakness" Nathan Britlles.
I did and traced it back, ...”We used offensive language A broad in Asia above a small photograph of the former governor to direct readers inside the newspaper to a full story of her Hong Kong appearance.”
And did not see a Capital “B.” This is nothing more than hyper-sensitivity and Political Corruption run-amok. The most anyone should have apologized for is a typo!
IMHO, they should sack the editor...
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