A altered U.S. flag posted on a bulletin board among family photos has stirred a Tallahassee sized tantrum encompassing issues of church and state, government retaliation against the press, and even editorial judgement.
Palm Beach Post’s Tallahassee bureau chief S. V. Date reported on July 23 that a U.S. flag pinned to a bulletin board in the office of Gov. Bush’s top lawyer showed a bright, white cross emblazoned over the blue field of white stars. Critics said the message is that America is a Christian nation. Sen. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Weston, called it “offensive and hurtful.”
Gov. Bush called Date’s reporting “unprofessional conduct,” the Post’s Editor Edward Sears said “an editor should have stopped it” from being printed and yesterday the paper’s ombudsman defended the story because it “conveyed legitimate public-interest issues.”
Read C.B. Hanif’s story behind the story here.