Yes, the N&O, like all reputable news outlets, has a wall between edit and sales, such that one doesn’t know what the other is doing. Still, this ad placement, atop an above-the-fold headline on the 14 people who were gunned down yesterday in California, seems particularly unfortunate, the kind of thing someone, somewhere should have spotted before going to press. Or maybe let’s do away with the obnoxious front-page sticky altogether. Just a thought. (The N&O, by the way, isn’t the first newspaper to run into this sort of issue. Earlier this year, the Florida Times-Union had almost the exact same thing happen.)
But hey, your Black Friday savings runs through Dec. 15, so stock up, everyone. (Judging by that thing about Black Friday seeing the most background checks ever, you already are.) Can’t have too many guns. Like, for instance, this Smith & Wesson M&P 15, which, you know, seems ideal for shooting deer. Or, like James Holmes did in Colorado with this same gun, shooting up a movie theater. Whatever floats your boat.
*The web ad appears to no longer be running on the N&O website. Hat tip and screen grabs courtesy of Pete Farquhar.