Roddy Severnick has been using the phone assigned to ABC and leaving his personal things on the ABC desk ... despite the fact that CBS has its own desk. It so happens there's a shortage of phones in the pressroom, and a shortage of desks, and those of us working for the smaller media outlets all have to share desks and share phones whereas the network correspondents have desks assigned, they've paid for the desks and the phones, and Chris O'Dowell from ABC went into a rage, finally, having dealt with Roddy Severnick in a diplomatic fashion for weeks, suddenly out of nowhere this violent rage came pouring out of him and the CBS minicam went flying across the pressroom, crashing into a case of water cooler refills, ditto the CBS lights, there was also a struggle that would've turned into a fistfight if Roddy Severnick and Chris O'Dowell hadn't been separated by various interlopers. ... Fawbus Kennedy ... entered the pressroom in the middle of this fracas and instantly started taking notes, whereupon Marvin Payton from the Sacramento Bee threw a punch at Fawbus Kennedy, on general principles as he later said, unfortunately knocking off Fawbus Kennedy's expensive eyeglasses, and now there's talk of assault charges. ... [E]veryone including me has told the investigator we didn't actually see Marvin Payton hit Fawbus Kennedy, although we all did, since the general feeling is that Fawbus Kennedy hasn't any business being in the pressroom, since he's basically an advocate for the prosecution and has said as much in his magazine diary, not that the sentiments among the press run especially high in favor of the defense, it's simply a question of balance and fairness to both sides.

Resentment: A ComedyBy Gary IndianaPage 84