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Namby-Pamby Modern Newsrooms
“Back when I got into journalism, the idea that a fistfight in a newsroom would turn into a news story was unthinkable. The guys in the sports department at the New York Daily News, they had so many, you wouldn’t even look up.”—Henry Allen, 68, Pulitzer Prize-winning editor, now on leave for his last three weeks before retirement from the Washington Post Style section after punching reporter Manuel Roig-Franzia during a newsroom fracas, 11/3/09. URL
Responding on his blog, Chatological Humor:
“The first thing I want to say is, hooray. Hooray that there is still enough passion left somewhere in a newsroom in America for violence to break out between colorful characters in disagreement over the quality of a story.”
Editor’s Note: Hard-hitting journalism.
CALLING ALL USU JCOM ALUMS: Where are you? We’re updating our alumni list. Please send your current position, title, contact info (including email), graduation year and any news to ted.pease@usu.edu.
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Dear Ted,
ReplyDeleteI sent this little item to Gene Weingarten at the Post after reading this morning “Today Word on Journalism.”
Yours,
Jamie
Joe Howard, one of the World’s leading reporters, was preparing to depart for Montreal on the evening of February 9, 1887, to cover the city’s famous winter carnival. The idea had been Pulitzer’s, and it was a plum assignment. Howard would spend several days visiting a monolithic
illuminated ice palace and attending the carnival’s many festivities.
As he talked over his plans with editors in the newsroom, Pulitzer came out from his office and walked over to him. “What have you been doing today, Joe?” asked Pulitzer.
“Nothing. I’m preparing, you know, to go to Montreal,” replied Howard.
Upon hearing this, Pulitzer remembered he had also given permission and $100 to Walt McDougall to go to Montreal. Pulitzer had no interest in having—in his words—“two high-priced men off on one job.”
“I don’t want you to go,” Pulitzer brusquely told Howard.
“But,” said Howard, “I’ve bought my tickets and engaged berths for the people who are going with me. One must do that early. There are crowds going to Canada right now.”
Pulitzer’s face reddened. He raised his right hand and, waving his index finger close to Howard’s face, said, “I tell you I don’t want you to go.”
“Don’t you point that at me,” Howard snapped back, hurling an insult, later reported as one that described Pulitzer as “a sordid, grasping, covetous Israelite.”
Howard’s revilement kindled Pulitzer’s notorious temper. The publisher, who at six feet two inches towered over the squat reporter, struck Howard on the neck with his fist, sending him to the floor. As Howard fumbled for his eyeglasses, knocked off by the blow, Pulitzer told him he was fired. Rising from the floor, Howard tried to return the assault. But Cockerill and others restrained him and escorted him from the office.
“Joe got so abusive that I got at him and knocked him down, and then discharged him on the spot,” Pulitzer admitted to reporters from rival newspapers who chased him down later that day. But, he added, “I wouldn’t for the world hurt Joe, so don’t say anything about it, please.”
Naturally, however, the fisticuffs made the front pages of the city’s papers, except for the restrained New York Times. The New York Herald, where Howard had once worked, wrote the incident up like a prizefight, complete with diagrams and sporting-style commentary.
From my forthcoming Pulitzer: A Life in Politics, Print, and Power (HarperCollins
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James McGrath Morris
A 68-year old Pulitzer winning editor taking a swing at a younger reporter? Not news? Please! Shouting and cursing in the newsroom happens all the time. Throwing down … not so much. Gotta love it.
ReplyDeleteBud
this kind of topic is good for people to learn more about it, and that people should be every day less ignorant, and medicine for this is the reading of issues like this
ReplyDelete