The Worst Daily in Vermont has done stepped in it big time. Word of its unfortunate insert in today’s paper, first reported by GMD’s kestrel9000, has gone national by way of the widely-read Jim Romenesko media blog.

And thence to the attention of the Asian-American Journalists Association, which has fired off a letter of protest to Mark Smith, publisher of the Cal-Rec:

No one can criticize the Caledonian Record for rooting for the home team. But we at the Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA) were appalled by the insert included in your newspaper to cheer on the St. Johnsbury Academy. “Fry Rice” caught the wrong kind of attention because of its racist undertones.

By itself, the slogan might be considered clever. But it became offensive when published in a typeface mimicking Chinese calligraphy.

A Wall Street Journal columnist summed up how seemingly inconsequential things like fonts perpetuate stereotypes. The column (found at http://on.wsj.com/LCaQYn) noted the “psychological toll from regular exposure to ching-chong babble, slant-eyed caricature, cheesy font choices and face-painted minstrelsy.”

We’ll assume that your use of that typeface was not meant to offend. But we’ll also assume that if that is the case, the Caledonian Record will publicly acknowledge its lapses in taste and judgment.

I suspect it’ll be a cold day in Hell before they get their apology. And if it does come, it’ll be one of those weaselly “to those who were offended” non-apologies.

Because so far, the operators of the Calcified Rectum remain clueless about their bad judgment.  

Publisher Mark Smith failed to return Jim Romenesko’s request for comment. The Cal-Rec’s webpage still includes the paper’s Tweet alerting readers to the quasi-racist poster.

And the paper’s Facebook page has attracted a steady stream of comments, most of them critical of the paper. A few, predictably, are variations on “so what’s the big deal?”

Unfortunately, their number includes three ignorant posts by “T. Smith,” I’m guessing  Todd Smith, assistant publisher, who presumably earned his high post the old-fashioned way: by fortunate accident of birth. T’s posts:

The last one was posted around 2:30 p.m. No more after that. I guess the Toddster decided to get out of the line of fire. Or perhaps Daddy told him to shut up and lay low.  

That’s one of their two options, anyway. The other is to step out, own up, and apologize sincerely and fully.

Ya think they’ll go with option A?