The suburban Chicago Daily Herald, the 75th largest newpaper in the United States, with a circulation of between 150,000 and 200,000 copies per weekday, has apologized for its New Year's Day front page feature which praised Abu Abbas and Sheik Ahmed Yassin, two vicious terrorists, as among notables departed in 2004, whose Lives "enriched" us.

The paper claims that it was all an innocent mistake:

An editor wrote a headline for a package of pictures he didn't see in total, basing his words on what he believed the theme of the package to be — a compilation of photographs of people who died in 2004 who had made positive contributions to humanity or the world. But the editors who selected and compiled the photographs were operating on a different premise. They put together a group of pictures of people who had died who were prominent, regardless of the merits of their accomplishments.

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.

That's all well and good. But the Herald, which has a history of anti—Isarel thetoric, listed only one cause of death, among all the notables. Yassin was said to be "killed by Israelis."

Michael Menis  1 06 05