The newspaper era is dying. So, too, is decorum in politics between people who disagree.
At least, that’s how it seems from the retirement party of Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Stu Bykofsky. After 47 years as a regular columnist covering sports, politics, and culture, Bykofsky is finally retiring, and the paper hosted a party to bid him farewell. The Washington Post ran a feature story detailing what happened next.
It started with good-natured fun and nostalgia, with Bykofsky fulfilling his decades-old promise to “eat his words” if the Philadelphia Eagles won the Super Bowl, cutting up an old column and swallowing some of the paper shreds. Co-workers spoke, and the party was, aside from the ingestion of a newspaper column, fairly typical.
However, another writer at the newspaper, Inga Saffron, took the mic to do a little more than that. Saffron went on a long rant railing against Bykofsky, her long-time sparring partner and ideological foe, making false claims about his journalistic practices and accusing him of supporting pedophilia.
Saffron railed that Bykofsky had “slimed” her, and said “that should give you a sense of the kind of journalist he is.”
He stood a few feet away the entire time, shaking his head and cursing at her in response. “Half the things she said were lies,” the Post quotes Bykofsky as replying.
Following the long screed, a co-worker asked: “Does anybody want to say anything good?”
No one immediately replied.
This story will sound familiar to many Americans. Long gone are the days of pleasant civil discourse and amiable conversations over dinner with loved ones. It’s been replaced with furious Facebook comments, Twitter wars, politicians insulting each other, and, apparently, raucous retirement parties.
—By Brad Polumbo
