Newspaper will not renew racist columnist contract

On 3/16/06, Lary Coppola  wrote:

Thank you for taking the time to contact us with your concerns about the opinion piece by Adele Ferguson.

We have received more than 1,500 emails (and still counting) since it hit many major blogs earlier this week. We originally attempted to respond to all who contacted us, and engage in dialogue with those that answered those responses. Our position on this matter is simple: Ms. Ferguson's column is editorial material we buy, and are contractually obligated to run, unedited. We don't condone the point of view expressed by Ms. Ferguson, but we do believe in the First Amendment which which celebrates free speech and diversity of thought. While Ms. Ferguson has the right to express her opinion, it's just that, HER opinion.

Unequivocally, that column does NOT reflect the opinion of the management, or ownership of the Business Journal, and we offer a sincere and humble apology to those who took offense to it.

While we can't "unprint" it, the column has been deleted from our Web site. We will also be running a number of letters from people who contacted us in the next issue, and we are not going to renew our contract with the syndicator when it expires - which is soon. Frankly, at this point, I'm not certain what else it is we can do to make this right, but I'm certainly open to suggestion.

LFC