Chicago Tribune apologizes for Boston bombing joke

The Chicago Tribune has apologized for an image in the paper this week that jokes about putting on hold the warm feelings it shared with Boston after April’s bombings. The cities’ NHL teams are vying for the Stanley Cup.

In a tweet to “Boston friends,” Chicago Tribune Editor Gerould Kern wrote Wednesday that the paper “still supports you after all you’ve been through. We regret any offense. Now let’s play hockey.”

And the newspaper said in a statement that the “commentary meant to underscore the intense but friendly rivalry between the Bruins and the Blackhawks on the eve of the NHL championship series.”

On Wednesday, the Tribune ran an image that slightly changed a moving tribute it ran in April after the marathon bombing. That tribute read “We are Chicago” above the names of Boston’s sports teams: the Red Sox, Celtics, Bruins, Patriots and Revolution.

This week’s graphic showed a hand that had ripped the word “Bruins” off the page and the phrase, “Yeah, not right now we’re not.”

The image generated comments on social media sites, and stories were posted on websites of Boston Magazine, USA Today and the Poynter Institute.

“Classiness has its limits, the Chicago Tribune’s Sports Section reminds us ...” began a story on the Boston Magazine website.

The Tribune’s original graphic above a message that concluded with the words, “Hang in there, Boston,” was among many moving tributes to the city after the bombings. At the time, the Tribune sent boxes of pizza to the Boston Globe newsroom, a gesture that the Globe called “a welcome act of kindness by fellow journalists.”