Boozeroom?

This fascinating article by Jack Shafer is well worth a read. In his opinion, chain-smoking alcoholics still make the best journalists, and newspapers should stop being so square and start letting their reporters keep handles of vodka in their desk drawers and light up during meetings. He also has some interesting ideas about newsroom interactions.

And in the old days, great status was bestowed upon the foulest mouth in the newsroom. Today, that sort of talk will earn you a write-up from HR for creating a climate of sexual harassment. Paradoxically, the language and subjects now banned as inappropriate inside the newsroom are routinely found inside the pages of the newspaper.

Oh, right, that’s exactly what we need. A bunch of men competing to see who has the “foulest mouth.” But, hey, a shot every now and then might be fun…