http://drudgereport.com/flash3.htm
ESPN SCRUBS HUNTER S. THOMPSON BUSH BASH
Monday May 24 2004 17:50:09 ET
Hunter S. Thompson's ESPN column was scrubbed of controversy late Monday afternoon when online editors worried the famed gonzo journalist had gone too far.
In a column entitled, "Let's Go to the Olympics," Thompson went off on the Abu Ghraib prison picture scandal, exclaiming: "Not even the foulest atrocities of Adolf Hitler ever shocked me so badly as these [Abu Ghraib] photographs did."
But after being linked to the DRUDGE REPORT, a top editor demanded the sentence be immediately edited --without Thompson's okay, according to an ESPN.com staffer.
"Hunter can go too far sometimes," the Bristol-based ESPN employee told the DRUDGE REPORT.
The cleansed paragraph now reads:
"These horrifying digital snapshots of the American dream in action on foreign soil are worse than anything even I could have expected. I have been in this business a long time and I have seen many staggering things, but this one is over the line.
As with the original, Thompson still concludes with the thought: "Now I am really ashamed to carry an American passport."
Developing...