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The Wednesday Journal, a weekly newspaper covering Oak Park and River Forest, devoted what seems like half of last week’s issue to apologizing. “Reckless and unsubstantiated charge. . . . Extraordinarily serious lapse in editorial judgment,” says editor and publisher Dan Haley in a page-one statement posted online December 7 and in print December 13. “Gigantic error. . . . This newspaper offers no excuse or rationalization for this serious mistake,” says Haley in a column on page four.
That was the “reckless and unsubstantiated charge.” The Journal‘s “extraordinarily serious lapse in … judgment” was to run the old picture with the letter. High school superintendent Susan Bridge hotly informed the paper that the student, a member of the high school football team, is known as a “fine young man with a clean discipline record, superb attendance, and a good scholar.”
