Cleanliness is next to what-li-ness?

Good column from the San Francisco Chronicle on how Hollywood cleans up newsrooms. And I'm not just talking about the language, and the reporters, and the clothes, but also how literally the newsrooms look clean.

I don't have any dying plants on my desk, but I did just throw out an 18-month old package of peanut butter crackers that had become lost in one of my desk drawers.

Journalism 101: People actually read your stuff

Count me among the legions who think that, while supremely talented, Ron Borges is mainly just a big D-Bag.

For those looking for a good summation of all the events leading up to the suspension of the sportswriter who once beat up a guy wearing a neckbrace, I give you Cold Hard Football Facts, which has held a public grudge against Borges since they accused him in January of ripping off a story of theirs on the long-past Cleveland Browns dynasty . Gee, sound familiar?

To me, the moral of this whole thing will be -- aside from the standard "attribute your material" basic J-School lessons -- if you're going to be provocative, don't also be a jerk, because then you'll just have a whole host of enemies scouring your work looking for ways to pull you down. I bet this whole thing wouldn't have exploded this big if it involved someone like Tony Massarotti or Tom Curren.

P.S. I probably should change that above sentence to "the sportswriter who allegedly once beat up a guy wearing a neckbrace." Can never be too careful with those journalistic standards, ya know.