Who Thought This Awful 12 Years a Slave Headline Was a Good Idea?

And the award for worst post-Oscars headline goes to… The Daily Breeze, a Torrance, California newspaper that featured this declaration on its front page Monday morning:

Poynter’s Andrew Beaujon tracked down the vice president of news and executive editor for Digital First Media’s Los Angeles News Group, which publishes The Daily Breeze, who was apparently not happy with the headline.

Here’s how Beaujon sums up Michael Anastasi’s reaction:

Anastasi said “I winced” when he saw the front, and that his “body is still contorted” from his physical reaction to the headline. He’s spoken to the Breeze’s editors, he said. “They feel terrible and have taken responsibility,” he said. “It should never have happened.” There will be internal discipline, Anastasi said, declining to elaborate. He says the people at the Breeze “work very hard day in and day out to do some terrific journalism.”

Not many people called to complain, he said, about four or five readers. “One is bothersome to me,” he said.

Unfortunately for everyone, the Breeze was not the only paper with an ethically-challenged Oscar headline yesterday. The East Central Illinois News-Gazette thought this is what constituted an appropriate 12 Years a Slave headline:

And the Denver Post didn’t do much better:

[h/t HyperVocal]
[photos via @aaronmedwards, @MsPackyetti]

— —

>> Follow Matt Wilstein (@TheMattWilstein) on Twitter

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!