The Press: Excuse It, Please

Because New Year’s Eve was his boss’s night off, a copydesk assistant named D. L. Whitehurst was in charge of putting the Palm Beach Post-Times to bed. Instead of merely editing the last-minute news, he felt like making some of his own. He banged out a 650-word article and slapped it on Page One. Sample: “Half-drunk women heard their drunker men tell why this bloody mess, so far, far away would be over before another New Year. . . . They had been in combat—with their draft boards. . . . They had their stripes—deferment stripes. . . . They wondered when all the killing would be over and got drunk doing it.”

Next day, the Post-Times ran a sober front-page apology, added that “naturally, Mr. Whitehurst does not continue to work here.”