Tom Robbins Comments on Leaving the Village Voice

Yesterday was a tough one at the Village Voice, as veteran reporters Wayne Barrett and Tom Robbins both left the paper. A bit of a controversy as to why Robbins left ensued (the Voice says he just stepped down, the New York Times says he quit in protest), and today, Gothamist caught up with him to get his version of the story:

I don’t know why everyone’s hung up on this thing. Look: If Wayne Barrett was still at the Voice I would be too. I never would have thought of heading out the door if he was there. I wish the paper well, I hope it succeeds, but the decision that they could do without the greatest digger of investigative journalism says a lot about the direction they want to go in.

We’ll take that as a “Yes, I did quit in protest.”

The rest of the interview has Robbins questioning the direction of journalism, saying “Abso-fucking-lutley” and hating on the world of snarky blogs. FishbowlNY has no comment.

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