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Fistfight at Washington Post?

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by Frank_Ridgeway, Nov 2, 2009.

  1. Frank_Ridgeway

    Frank_Ridgeway Well-Known Member

    I saw this earlier on Romenesko and was surprised to not find a thread here (unless I missed it). Apparently, one staffer called another a "cocksucker," the other guy went after him, and the top editor broke up the fight. In the Style section, of all places:

    http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/citydesk/2009/11/02/brauchli-intervenes-in-style-fistfight/
     
  2. clutchcargo

    clutchcargo Active Member

    This sounds very similar to a ferocious fight I once witnessed with the same sort of verbiage----it was a couple of schoolgirls in the seventh grade. Our skinny, Barney Fyfe-type teacher (male) tried to break them up and he got the crap kicked out out of him.
     
  3. DanOregon

    DanOregon Well-Known Member

    From what I read the editor (who was a short-timer who took a buyout and only had weeks left) and was putting down a reporter while he was editing her copy, in front of her and others. A co-worker stepped up and said "you don't have to be such a cocksucker" and the fists flew.

    My biggest surprise was the exec ed was in the same zip code as the style section on a Friday evening. Aren't most Style sections located about as far away from the suits as possible?
     
  4. slappy4428

    slappy4428 Active Member

    I'm surprised a man in the style section took exception to being called "cocksucker..."
     
  5. I'm waiting to see this on featuresjournalists.com
     
  6. MileHigh

    MileHigh Moderator Staff Member

    ZING!
     
  7. imjustagirl

    imjustagirl Active Member

    My favorite part is the tag on the follow-up story: "cocksucker."
     
  8. BYH

    BYH Active Member

    People who left SJ landed at the Washington Post? Huh. I'll be damned.
     
  9. Football_Bat

    Football_Bat Well-Known Member

    They've already shut down the Weddings board over this. And the troublemakers are flinging their poo over the rest of the board and running and hiding when called on it.
     
  10. Moondoggy

    Moondoggy Member

    "Bein' called a cocksucker isn't personal?"

    "No, it's two nouns combined to elicit a prescribed response."

    -- Patrick Swayze, "Road House" (RIP)
     
  11. Hoo

    Hoo Active Member

    The Post's Gene Weingarten <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2009/10/01/DI2009100102668.html#1103">weighs in</a> on the fight, the pugilists and a root cause that will hit home for many of us:

    "I don't know the ultimate precipitating factor in what led to blows between these two guys on Friday -- for all I know, Manuel strangled Henry's cat. But I do know what I read, that the proximate cause was the quality of written word -- what we put in the paper. It doesn't surprise me."
     
  12. imjustagirl

    imjustagirl Active Member

    Huge Weingarten fan, of course, and I can hope that's true. But no matter how bad things get, there should be a sense of decorum. Someone tells me to my face that my story is the second-worst he's ever seen, I don't care what the reason is. That's rude. Calling someone a cocksucker, also rude.

    Maybe I just wasn't around for the glory days of journalism, I don't know.
     
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