USA Weekend being withheld because of slur
By Mike Rouse
Published in News on January 18, 2004 11:03 PM
USA Weekend, a supplement that appears on Sundays in the News-Argus, is not being distributed today because this week's edition contained a racial slur.
Editors of the publication notified the News-Argus and other newspapers that the slur had been discovered during the printing run. It was corrected, but more than 300 newspapers, or half of those which buy USA Weekend, received copies that contained the slur.
The newspapers had the option of distributing or not distributing them. The News-Argus chose not to.
USA Weekend apologized. The epithet was not used in a story. It appeared in small type in a photo illustration. The type had been randomly chosen as text that was in the illustration's background. By chance, the text came from a New York Times magazine article in November in which the author discussed the use of the slur.
It was not noticeable in USA Weekend but could be detected on close inspection.
The current issue of the magazine is available online at usaweekend.com. USA Weekend will return to the News-Argus next week.