UVA student paper joke misfires

(This aired at 1pm and 3pm on 4/2 on WAMU)

Anchor lede: Just two weeks after the bloody and controversial arrest of a student leader, the University of Virginia student newspaper has provoked outrage with a parody about what happened.

April Fool's editions of student newspapers are nothing new, but on a campus so recently dismayed by the arrest of a popular African American student, a joking story about the imaginary arrest of a Native American student was no laughing matter.

"It kind of made light of the Martese Johnson thing. That wasn't really a good joke."

That was Olatunde Gbotosho, just one the students shocked by the edition of the Cavalier Daily hitting the stands on April 1st. By mid-day, editor Julia Horowitz yanked the offending article offline, and she issued an apology.

"No matter what day of the year it is, these words matter, and they hurt people that we care about very deeply."

Another parody, this one mentioning civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks, was also removed. This is Hawes Spencer