by Gordon C. Morse
Columnist Jeff Schapiro vacated the Richmond Times-Dispatch rather abruptly last Sunday and for a man of many words, he had little to say about it.
Four decades of scribbling and he throws out a few lines at the end of his column, not at all dissimilar to the Woody Allen dialogue in “Crimes and Misdemeanors”:
“He left a note. He left a simple little note that said ‘I’ve gone out the window.’ This is a major intellectual and he leaves a note that says ‘I’ve gone out the window.’ He’s a role-model. You’d think he’d leave a decent note.”
No decent note from Schapiro. No decent note from anybody, including the paper’s editors. Just out the window.
Management indifference to its writing corps is an established and rotten tradition at the Richmond Times-Dispatch. It appears to be the only tradition left at the paper.
And why are we calling it the Richmond Times-Dispatch anyway? The “Hanover Times-Dispatch” would have the benefit of accuracy.
In its heyday, now long removed, the Times-Dispatch newsroom was a sight – a floor scattered with messy desks, messy people and messy commotion. Bright, funny, purposeful writers and editors were splayed about and running a competition, it often seemed, over how many books, reports, press releases and note pads could be balanced onto a single desk without it all collapsing to the floor.
That newsroom spawned raised voices and barked instructions, arguments and disputes, and harbored some just astounding personalities. I thought it was wonderful.
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