Digital Extra: The Journal's 175th Anniversary

07.21.2004

1993. Journal apologizes after vulgarity goes unnoticed in photo

Some words a family newspaper will rarely print, unless they become extremely newsworthy. And, for one particular word, it is hard to imagine a situation in which it would become newsworthy enough to appear on the pages of The Providence Journal. Even if it did become newsworthy, the paper would probably try to write around it, as this faithful reporter is trying to do now.

But that word has appeared in The Providence Journal. By accident, on July 18, 1993. In a photograph taken at a rock concert. The offending word was on a bumpersticker affixed to a sign a concertgoer was holding. The bumpersticker had a three-word phrase that expressed displeasure with the federal Drug Enforcement Administration.

The following Sunday, The Journal printed an apology.

One sharp-eyed reader in North Orange Park, Fla., sent a letter to the editor expressing his displeasure with the photo. "I'm ashamed to say I come from Rhode Island when I see things like this in your paper," he wrote.

The day the letter ran, Aug. 18, The Journal apologized again.