John Biemer of the Chicago Tribune undercuts a good story with a sophomoric idiotism in the last line.


Update: Biemer says it was a Tribune editor.

Subject: RE: good story
Date: Thu, 14 Sep 2006 10:35:05 -0500
From: "Biemer, John K."
To: "goethean"

Goethean,

I had put in that line to set up a Duckworth quote which I thought was
poignant given her own sacrifice ....

"We just got lucky, thank God," she said.

Some editor along the chain apparently clipped that final quote off to
fit the story on the page, which I agree, makes it lose its intention.

Yeah...funny how deleting that line completely changes the point into its opposite.