Two weeks ago, the October 4 issue of the Nassau Weekly ran a cover lamenting the entirely fictional passing of Juergen Habermas. While our last issue intended to remedy what was supposed to be a humorous presentation of our lack of journalistic integrity, we realize that what is needed is not a stylized retraction, but a formal and sincere apology.
Our error was to consider Habermas as an abstraction, and a declaration of his passing a comment on The Towering Intellectual. Yet the end result, our cover picture and caption, added up to nothing more than a small-minded insult. It was a very serious mistake to forget that Habermas is an individual with family and friends, and we hope that anyone who was hurt by the cover accepts our apologies and our regrets. The Nass Staff