In the wake of the now-infamous John McCrea is(n't) dead April Fool's Joke of 2008, not only have the folks over at Sacrag.com deleted all April Fool's Day-related posts, they've issued an apology.
Sort of.
The typist behind the Internet tempest, Dan "Stickie" Scott, sent an e-mail to The Bee that read, in part:
On April 1, in honor of the great American tradition of April Fools Day, I posted the fictional saga of the death of John McCrae (sic) on the SacRag. Some of you were not amused. Some of you were. Regardless, we at the Rag are questioning the boundary of good taste and the possibility that the joke may have crossed it.This especially becomes a consideration for family, friends or acquaintances of the subject of the joke. It is one thing to chuckle, roll your eyes, or be offended at a story about a random dead person. It is a different matter altogether when that person is a real flesh and blood human for whom you care. This is how we truly misstepped and crossed that line that we should not have crossed ....
(T)o those who were truly hurt, shocked or discomforted by my idea of humor, we at the SacRag offer an apology and ask that you don't hold it against us. Everyone else, remember that most things in life should be approached with a wink and a smile and you'll probably enjoy the ride a little more.
By the way, for the record, Sacrag did not delete the posts (there were several "updates") in question (or their other> April Fool's Day joke regarding Sacto media, uh, icon Mark S. Allen) because they were tasteless but, instead, because they were passe. At least that's what Scott tells me.
"Like many other websites, all of the April Fools Day posts came down because it is no longer April Fools Day," Scott writes in an e-mail.
But, he adds, although the stories are no longer on the site's main page, links to the archived posts will be posted shortly.
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