Killer Newsroom (December 2005)

Killer Newsroom (December 2005)

The newsroom was quiet
although it usually wasn't
They lost one of their own
murdered - butchered actually -
and the police were there
to ask a few questions

So this is what it takes
to quiet a newsroom,
I thought
To quiet the talking
and sounds of computer keys
being banged into stories
and the undertone of phones dialing, slaming
and reporters quizzing people on the other end

Even the sports' writers
who are usually always loud
(when they aren't eating...
and even then they are loud)
were quiet

Most of the reporters
and members of the copy desk
would say Margaret was a good person
and a meticulous editor
although they didn't really think that
The reporters didn't like her
even though they didn't really know her
as a person

As a copy editor
they all hated her
She was "a butcher"
they would say
She ruined most of their stories
The reporters complained
she changed things
she added things
she took things out of stories
She couldn't do that
Not to them
Especially since they acted like
(and believed)
they knew so much more than her!

Now there was an empty chair
at her still cluttered desk
Just as Margaret left it
a hiking book on Connecticut state parks
a dictionary
and stacks of newspapers
Margaret would sit at her desk
with her long, bushy red hair pulled back
and a cup of coffee and pack of Winston's nearby
And ussually she would read the stories
and then rewrite them
and often just killed stories -
putting them in a limbo -
an editorial black hole -
where they would die
And that's where she figured they belonged
if she thought they were inferior
to a standard she still believed
"journalists" should have

Tucked away
off to the side of the newsroom
almost
in the usually "neat and tidy" business section
where reporters still wore neckties
was Nick
a clean-cut person -
most people considered him boring -
they wouldn't even ask him out for a beer -
typing away on a biotech story
while everyone else
whispered about Margaret
and whoever it was the police would have in the conference room

And the reporters all had their theories
- they always did -
about Margaret's demise
and how they should handle it
as a news story

Nick worked quietly
occasinally smiling to himself
Margaret killed one of Nick's stories
the week before
It was on a biotech company
and it's public stock offering
It was a favorable story
and probably could have made anyone who invested in the company
- like Nick -
a lot of money
Nick put his life's savings into the company
It was a can't miss opportunity
(especially for someone in a field
where there was little money to make)
No one else paid much attention to the story
And it probably would have ran
But Margaret needed to check facts first
like she always did
So she made a phone call
and learned that the drug
developed by the company
would never make it to the next phase of testing

That needed to be reported
she thought
Not the fluff Nick sent
So she killed the story
Which killed Nick's plans
to make some real money

Nick watched
as the police talked to everyone
one by one
the whole staff

He was sure
no one would ever
discover what he did.
He was sure
the lingering
feeling of warm blood
on his now clean hands
would soon go away

Who's the butcher now? he thought