A columnist for the Worcester, Massachusetts Telegram & Gazette has angrily
quit his post after readers objected to a column — and his editor agreed.

James Dempsey’s April 20 column satirized Worcester residents’ fears of a
planned visit by Harley-Davidson enthusiasts by assigning similar concerns to
an upcoming convention of priests. “I see nothing but grief coming out of
this,” Dempsey wrote. “They’ll inspire the locals with their troublemaking
ways, and when they leave we’ll have the problem of swaggering,
cigarette-puffing altar boys to deal with.”

Readers offended by Dempsey’s column included Gazette editor Harry Whitin,
who published an apology calling the piece “mean-spirited, anti-Catholic and
crude.” Furious, Dempsey announced his decision to abandon the column and
return to the paper’s reporting staff.

“You don’t OK a column and then, because of some criticism, publicly
humiliate the columnist…” Dempsey fumed on Wednesday. “How is a columnist
to write provocatively, or indulge in satire or criticism, without wondering
whether the next day he or she will be excoriated in the newspaper and
characterized as a bungling fool?”

Readers discussed the flap in the newspaper’s message boards. [via Spike Report]