The headline on the front page of your 11 May edition was inexcusable. There was no need for a headline that was more suited to the National Enquirer than the Alpena News. Yours is a regional newspaper that is read by families all over Northern Michigan. Your editorial judgment failed and in that process you caused needless pain for a family already suffering the death of their husband, father, son, brother and son-in-law. While there may be a need to inform the public, this could have been done with compassion instead of sensationalism.

I am well aware that titles of an article often sell newspapers, but there was no need for this kind of reprehensible journalism. On the day that you published his obituary you choose to publish this terrible and unnecessarily graphic article. Many families will purchase several copies of the paper the day an obituary is published, so that they may have copies to keep. Now they also have to see that horrible account.

Mr. Speer and Mr. Murch, you both failed in your duty as editors. It seems that the power of the written word was forgotten. While I applaud the removal of the article from your website, there was no way to remove that article from the thousands of households that purchased a printed copy. You are not publishing the National Enquirer. Shame on you.

Geraldine Mulka

Presque Isle