It’s not often the correction page makes for heartfelt reading. But the Chicago Daily Herald apologized for botching a look back at people who died in 2004, after they lumped Hamas founder Ahmed Yassin and Achille Lauro mastermind Abu Abbas together with others under the headline, “Enriched Our Lives.”
Some of the subjects, like NFL star-turned-soldier Pat Tillman, indeed were virtuous and, as the headline said, “enriched our lives.” Others, though, like actor Robert Pastorelli, were famous primarily for accomplishments in the arts, science, business or sports. And some – two in particular – were simply evil. Abul Abbas was a renowned terrorist, whose misdeeds included orchestrating the hijacking of the Achille Lauro cruise ship in 1985 and pushing a wheelchair-bound passenger into the sea. Sheik Ahmed Yassin, a founder of the Mideast terrorist group Hamas, organized and financed acts of brutality that killed and maimed hundreds, perhaps thousands, of innocent civilians. That Abbas and Yassin died is significant, but only in the most tortured reading of history could they be considered to have made a positive contribution to mankind; indeed, they set back the cause of world peace.
Yet there they were, right up there with Nobel-winning DNA researcher Francis Crick and 13-year-old poet Matti Stepanek and a headline declaring “their dramatic legacies live on.” Reasonable people had to scratch their heads. We looked silly and intellectually sloppy. Surely no reputable newspaper would include Abbas and Yassin among the most honorable people to die during the year….
This mistake never should have been made in the first place, and once made, it should have been caught somewhere along the way before it was published. In fact, we constantly catch and prevent serious mistakes – not all of this caliber, but potentially embarrassing nonetheless. We are disturbed, frustrated and embarrassed that we missed this one.
Yet, there it is. There is no rational explanation for it or an acceptable excuse. All we can say is we are sorry for the mistake and the offense we implied, we recognize how serious it was and we are rededicated to the kind of work that won’t allow such a thing to happen again. We know an apology doesn’t make it all better, but we hope it at least shows the depth of our regret and the sincerity of our commitment.
The Daily Herald’s apology demonstrates that individuals writing letters to the editor can indeed make a difference.
