INDIANAPOLIS — The editor of The Indianapolis Star publicly apologized Thursday for what he and community leaders considered racially offensive comments posted by an editorial writer on one of the newspaper's blogs.
Editorial columnist RiShawn Biddle's posting on the online discussion board criticized City-County Council President Monroe Gray, who, like Biddle, is black. The blog, titled "Expresso," referred to Gray and other city Democrats using language that both the Star's editor and elected officials called offensive and unacceptable.
The language has since been removed from the site, and Editor Dennis Ryerson said at a news conference at Martin Luther King Jr. Park that the writer was no longer with the paper. Ryerson declined to say whether the writer was fired or resigned.
the story has now gone national, virtually ensuring that rishawn's name will pop up in dozens if not hundreds of newspapers and news sites across the country (and the net) tomorrow.
on the bright side, the offending post has finally been deleted from the star's servers, where it remained hidden but readable for some 30 hours after ostensibly being "removed".
update: see also romenesko at poynteronline.
2nd update: matthew felling writes this insightful post for cbs's public eye blog.¶
Anonymous, at
1:46 AM, November 02, 2007
