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A ‘Dying Breed’ Taking More Than Its Loud, Local Voice With It A ‘Dying Breed’ Taking More Than Its Loud, Local Voice With It
(about 2 hours later)
The reason I fell in love with newspapers — the printed kind — was because of the great columnists of the New York City tabloids, whose bylines hit the sidewalks like anvils when the delivery trucks dropped their bundled papers off at newsstands overnight.The reason I fell in love with newspapers — the printed kind — was because of the great columnists of the New York City tabloids, whose bylines hit the sidewalks like anvils when the delivery trucks dropped their bundled papers off at newsstands overnight.
If you were starting out in journalism when local newspapers were more economically vibrant, as I did, you followed their last names with awe: Kempton, McAlary, Duggan, Hamill, Dwyer, Daly, Collins, Gonzalez. You wanted to be them (or, at least, I did).If you were starting out in journalism when local newspapers were more economically vibrant, as I did, you followed their last names with awe: Kempton, McAlary, Duggan, Hamill, Dwyer, Daly, Collins, Gonzalez. You wanted to be them (or, at least, I did).
Their columns lionized the working stiff, gave cops their due when they were heroic — yet showed them no mercy when they were on the take or being abusive — and shook City Hall until the corruption and hypocrisy spilled out onto their crisply printed pages.Their columns lionized the working stiff, gave cops their due when they were heroic — yet showed them no mercy when they were on the take or being abusive — and shook City Hall until the corruption and hypocrisy spilled out onto their crisply printed pages.
But no name quite defined the genre like that of Breslin, as in Jimmy Breslin, who died Sunday at his home in Manhattan.But no name quite defined the genre like that of Breslin, as in Jimmy Breslin, who died Sunday at his home in Manhattan.
He became known nationally for his blunt Noo Yawk persona, somebody whose word was as honest as it was direct — when he told you in a commercial that Piels was “a good drinkin’ beer” you believed it — and for the mix of people he brought to life, Runyon-worthy characters like Vincent (the Chin) Gigante; Gothamesque killers like the Son of Sam, David Berkowitz; and noble everymen like Clifton Pollard, who dug President John F. Kennedy’s grave. He did important work that made his city better, like the columns that showed what it was like to have AIDS and that exposed torture in a Queens station house, which won him a Pulitzer Prize in 1986.He became known nationally for his blunt Noo Yawk persona, somebody whose word was as honest as it was direct — when he told you in a commercial that Piels was “a good drinkin’ beer” you believed it — and for the mix of people he brought to life, Runyon-worthy characters like Vincent (the Chin) Gigante; Gothamesque killers like the Son of Sam, David Berkowitz; and noble everymen like Clifton Pollard, who dug President John F. Kennedy’s grave. He did important work that made his city better, like the columns that showed what it was like to have AIDS and that exposed torture in a Queens station house, which won him a Pulitzer Prize in 1986.
In the coming days you’ll hear about the way he could find the story everybody else was missing and — if people stay true to his own tradition — about his nastier side, too, which showed itself in the ethnic and sexist tirade he unleashed at a Korean-American colleague that led to his suspension from Newsday in 1990. But you’ll also hear, if you haven’t already, that as a once-mighty local columnist feared by politicians and mobsters alike, he was “the last of a dying breed.”In the coming days you’ll hear about the way he could find the story everybody else was missing and — if people stay true to his own tradition — about his nastier side, too, which showed itself in the ethnic and sexist tirade he unleashed at a Korean-American colleague that led to his suspension from Newsday in 1990. But you’ll also hear, if you haven’t already, that as a once-mighty local columnist feared by politicians and mobsters alike, he was “the last of a dying breed.”
The phrase is about more than nostalgia (for instance, no one is pining for the gender imbalance of Mr. Breslin’s heyday). It’s about where news is going and, more to the point, where it’s going away, which will have an effect on you and where you live in ways that can be hard to appreciate until it’s too late.The phrase is about more than nostalgia (for instance, no one is pining for the gender imbalance of Mr. Breslin’s heyday). It’s about where news is going and, more to the point, where it’s going away, which will have an effect on you and where you live in ways that can be hard to appreciate until it’s too late.
We can all thank our higher powers that a lot of those great bylines are still around — Jim Dwyer and Gail Collins (now at The New York Times) and Steve Lopez (The Los Angeles Times) and Michael Daly (The Daily Beast), to name a few. And there are next-generation versions who are bringing to life important stories, like Gilbert Garcia of The San Antonio Express-News and Ginia Bellafante of The Times.We can all thank our higher powers that a lot of those great bylines are still around — Jim Dwyer and Gail Collins (now at The New York Times) and Steve Lopez (The Los Angeles Times) and Michael Daly (The Daily Beast), to name a few. And there are next-generation versions who are bringing to life important stories, like Gilbert Garcia of The San Antonio Express-News and Ginia Bellafante of The Times.
But “it used to be that there were many more of them,” the writer Jonathan Alter told me Sunday. Mr. Alter, a former columnist and editor for Newsweek, is co-producing a documentary for HBO about Mr. Breslin and his fellow New York City columnist Pete Hamill. The idea, he said, is to capture “what we’ve lost” with the dwindling ranks of big, voicy local writers.But “it used to be that there were many more of them,” the writer Jonathan Alter told me Sunday. Mr. Alter, a former columnist and editor for Newsweek, is co-producing a documentary for HBO about Mr. Breslin and his fellow New York City columnist Pete Hamill. The idea, he said, is to capture “what we’ve lost” with the dwindling ranks of big, voicy local writers.
“Every city had somebody who was at least a Breslin wannabe,” he said, “so as a result of that we got a lot of gritty columns that spoke for the average person and connected, spoke to the community. And we’ve really lost that all over the country.”“Every city had somebody who was at least a Breslin wannabe,” he said, “so as a result of that we got a lot of gritty columns that spoke for the average person and connected, spoke to the community. And we’ve really lost that all over the country.”
That point resonates in particular these days given the postelection questions about whether the mainstream news media understood and addressed the frustrations of middle-class Trump supporters.That point resonates in particular these days given the postelection questions about whether the mainstream news media understood and addressed the frustrations of middle-class Trump supporters.
And you can see how that might worsen the partisan divide: If there’s anything that can bring people of all political persuasions together, it’s the stuff of good and angry local columns about bribery at the local planning board or the town hall appointee who raided the public land trust.And you can see how that might worsen the partisan divide: If there’s anything that can bring people of all political persuasions together, it’s the stuff of good and angry local columns about bribery at the local planning board or the town hall appointee who raided the public land trust.
Along with everything else that’s changing in media, you can blame the internet for this, too.Along with everything else that’s changing in media, you can blame the internet for this, too.
Facebook, Twitter, personal blogs and websites like Medium make it possible for anyone to write a column, leading to a cacophony that can keep any one person from standing out and setting an agenda the way Mr. Breslin did.Facebook, Twitter, personal blogs and websites like Medium make it possible for anyone to write a column, leading to a cacophony that can keep any one person from standing out and setting an agenda the way Mr. Breslin did.
Now that every news organization, no matter how local, has the potential for national and international reach, “you’re losing a certain kind of local focus because it’s not exclusively a local medium,” Mr. Alter said. “You’re going to lose a sense of community.”Now that every news organization, no matter how local, has the potential for national and international reach, “you’re losing a certain kind of local focus because it’s not exclusively a local medium,” Mr. Alter said. “You’re going to lose a sense of community.”
As The Daily News’s editor in chief — and my former boss — Arthur J. Browne put it, “Today, of course, you have the digital distribution of journalism, and the rewards may not be there for a big city newspaper column when you’re appealing to a much broader, national audience on the web.”As The Daily News’s editor in chief — and my former boss — Arthur J. Browne put it, “Today, of course, you have the digital distribution of journalism, and the rewards may not be there for a big city newspaper column when you’re appealing to a much broader, national audience on the web.”
Then you have the economics — always the economics.Then you have the economics — always the economics.
Print advertising, the ballast of newspapers for so many decades, continues to move online, eroding newsroom budgets. These days, there’s a steady stream of news about some newspaper reducing the number of days it prints or shedding employees.Print advertising, the ballast of newspapers for so many decades, continues to move online, eroding newsroom budgets. These days, there’s a steady stream of news about some newspaper reducing the number of days it prints or shedding employees.
And the number of columnists who lost their jobs in the churn keeps rising — like the nearly four-decade veteran of The Journal News of White Plains, Phil Reisman, who was sent packing in October, or the editorial writer Yael T. Abouhalkah, who worked for nearly four decades for The Kansas City Star, who was laid off in September.And the number of columnists who lost their jobs in the churn keeps rising — like the nearly four-decade veteran of The Journal News of White Plains, Phil Reisman, who was sent packing in October, or the editorial writer Yael T. Abouhalkah, who worked for nearly four decades for The Kansas City Star, who was laid off in September.
The end of Mr. Abouhalkah’s run at The Star must have come as a relief to those he regularly pursued, like Kansas’ governor, Sam D. Brownback, and its secretary of state, Kris Kobach.The end of Mr. Abouhalkah’s run at The Star must have come as a relief to those he regularly pursued, like Kansas’ governor, Sam D. Brownback, and its secretary of state, Kris Kobach.
Getting to a place where you can write an authoritative, hard-charging column that shakes up your city or town takes what Mr. Browne of The Daily News described as “maturity and seasoning” — real reporting chops that get the goods and deliver them with impact.Getting to a place where you can write an authoritative, hard-charging column that shakes up your city or town takes what Mr. Browne of The Daily News described as “maturity and seasoning” — real reporting chops that get the goods and deliver them with impact.
One issue is that the opportunities to build that valuable local experience are diminishing along with the resources. Fortunately, there are good local news organizations like Patch.com, DNAInfo, and successful non-profits like The Texas Tribune. And organizations like the Knight Foundation are looking for ways to support local journalism. One issue is that the opportunities to build that valuable local experience are diminishing along with the resources. Fortunately, there are good local news organizations like Patch.com, DNAInfo, and successful nonprofits like The Texas Tribune. And organizations like the Knight Foundation are looking for ways to support local journalism.
But, Mr. Browne said, in terms of young journalists working toward becoming something akin to the Breslins of the past, he wasn’t sure he was “seeing that aspiration right now.”But, Mr. Browne said, in terms of young journalists working toward becoming something akin to the Breslins of the past, he wasn’t sure he was “seeing that aspiration right now.”
“Far more common is the easy commentary,” he said.“Far more common is the easy commentary,” he said.
There’s a great line in the Nora Ephron play “Lucky Guy” about the revered New York newspaper columnists, in which the New York City tabloid editor John Cotter tells the columnist Mike McAlary that he has “a bad case of Breslinitis, and you’re probably never going to get over it.”There’s a great line in the Nora Ephron play “Lucky Guy” about the revered New York newspaper columnists, in which the New York City tabloid editor John Cotter tells the columnist Mike McAlary that he has “a bad case of Breslinitis, and you’re probably never going to get over it.”
It’s a disease worth catching.It’s a disease worth catching.