Conor Friedersdorf at The American Scene:
This bit of Washington Post gossip is my favorite media story of the year
Harry Jaffe at Washingtonian:
It’s come to this: The Washington Post Style section, for years known as “the sandbox” because it was a playground for sometimes immature writers, has turned into a boxing ring because one of the editors was revolted by a story that came across his desk on deadline.
Details are sketchy, but numerous witnesses report that veteran feature editor Henry Allen punched out feature writer Manuel Roig-Franzia on Friday. The fracas took place in sight of Post executive editor Marcus Brauchli’s office. Brauchli rushed to separate the two.
It should be noted that Allen is nearly seventy, but he served in the Marines in Vietnam. He also won a Pulitzer prize in 2000 for criticism. Both apparently came into play when Allen jumped Roig-Franzia.
According to many sources, the incident began when Style editor Ned Martel assigned a semi-political story to Monica Hesse and Roig-Franzia. Playing off of an inadvertent disclosure last week that many congressmen are being investigated for ethics violations, Martel asked the two Style writers to compile a list of similar disclosures in the past. They came up with a “charticle” with a dozen examples, starting with Robert E. Lee’s Civil War battle plans for Antietam showing up wrapped around cigars.
Allen took a look and didn’t like. He started ranting about the number of mistakes he had found.
Hesse at one point asked him to send the copy back to her. She got a bit teary at the verbal beatdown.
Allen, according to sources, said: “This is total crap. It’s the second worst story I have seen in Style in 43 years.”
Roig-Franzia then wandered into the newsroom. A veteran foreign correspondent, he has been turning out political features for Style. He heard Allen’s rant and stopped by his desk.
“Oh, Henry,” he supposedly said, “don’t be such a cocks—–.”
Allen lunged at Roig-Franzia, threw him to the newsroom floor, and started throwing punches. Roig-Franzia tried to fend him off. Brauchli and others pulled the two apart.
Erik Wemple at Washington City Paper:
Into the one-sided faceoff jumped Chris Richards, the Post’s pop-music critic. One of the first responders, Richards stood between the hostile parties. Brauchli reportedly intervened as well.
After the set-to, Allen spent some time behind closed doors with managers. Brauchli told him that the Post just can’t have this sort of conduct in the newsroom. Allen agreed. They left it at that.
Then it was on to the office of Style co-boss Lynn Medford, who was apparently briefed by Brauchli on what to say to Allen. Medford told Allen that Brauchli had said that this was a new era at the Post and we can’t have violence in the newsroom. (What, did the smelling-salts lady take a buyout?) Another message from Brauchli to Allen via Medford: You can’t come into the newsroom again for your entire career.
That sanction is not as harsh as it sounds: Allen’s last day was to be Nov. 20. He is 68, had already accepted a buyout, was working on contract at the time of his lunge, and had already announced his retirement.
Of his swing, Allen says, “The last time I threw a punch at anybody was in the spring of 1963 in Parris Island, S.C., in Marine Corps recruit training.” Allen served in Vietnam for four months. Roig-Franzia hung up when called on this matter.
Matt Dornic at Fishbowl DC
Michael Calderone at Politico:
“We take this incident seriously and will address it appropriately,” Brauchli told POLITICO, declining to comment further.
Reports that Allen punched Roig-Franzia surfaced Monday morning on FishbowlDC, Washingtonian and City Paper (which reported Brauchli was traveling).
Multiple Post sources independently confirmed to POLITICO that Roig-Franzia got hit while defending colleague Monica Hesse from harsh criticism leveled by her editor, Allen.
Chris Rovzar at New York Magazine:
The only thing more unbelievable about this story than the fact that two such dudes actually started punching each other, and that one such punch actually landed, is that everyone else around them actually got up to intervene.
Well, and the bit at the beginning where we said journalists don’t keep bottles of booze in their lower left-hand drawers anymore. You probably shouldn’t believe that part, either.
Dear God, we are terrified of these people. And that is why we write for the Internets.
Anyway, features ed Allen didn’t like the piece and made Monica Hesse cry about the “charticle,” the end result of which you can read here. There’s some debate about whether Allen and Roig-Franzia were on the floor and whether they were multiple punches or just one, but even a single punch is juicy enough gossip to keep the media grapevine buzzing for awhile.
And that is why we like to stick with Twitter (soooo much better than charticles!). Andrew Beaujon, managing editor of City Paper Tweeted today:
[Photographer] Darrow [Montgomery] and I will be fighting at 1 p.m. if anyone wants to send a reporter.
Actually, we would be more than happy to send a reporter, if City Paper will send one of their people to capture the newsroom brawl we’re planning for 5 p.m. today here. We can’t say a whole lot about it except that it WILL involve nunchucks.
Hamilton Nolan at Gawker:
WaPo staffers, we know you have more details, and maybe sexxxy fight pixxx! Can this be accurately termed an “ass whupping,” or was it just a “sucker punch,” or was it more of an “embarrassing flailing about?” Email us at once.
At some point during the America’s Next Great Pundit competition, the competitors will take turns facing Henry Allen and his sidekick boxing kangaree in a mudpit gauntlet fight.
UPDATE: Jules Crittenden
More Calderone
UPDATE #2: Jason Linkins at HuffPo
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November 3, 2009 at 10:09 pm
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