Nows and Forevers

Listening to WCBS on the way into work this morning and Wayne Cabot mentioned today was the anniversary of Jimmy Breslin’s passing. Growing up in the New York metro area and reading the papers, you could read a lot of Jimmy Breslin. I did.

Breslin was one of the journalists I grew up reading, wanting to emulate as a street reporter, and who I have kept coming back to, over and over again. When I have taught journalism, in class and also as an editor, I’ve used Breslin’s work. Yeah, I’m a huge fan. And I’ve made at least one other Breslin fan who thought just as highly of his work.

(And there’s now a Library of America collection of Breslin’s newspaper and magazine articles and two of his books, which I highly recommend.)

Read Breslin’s columns in the paper as a kid (til he went to Newsday, which was hard as heck to find in Connecticut) and his book about the Mets. I happened upon his JFK columns as a teenager and it was like lightning struck, not just the writing and who he chose to talk to, but how you went about choosing sources and stories. “It’s an Honor” is still one of the best things I’ve ever written in newsprint.

I saw him speak about it back 26 years ago next month at the late, lamented National Writers Workshop in Hartford, Connecticut, back when we used to talk a lot about improving and celebrating newspaper writing as a craft. I know the exact date because I took notes and I couldn’t wait to unload them into my journal. There, in Hartford, Breslin spoke about the gravedigger theory he’s so famous for. This is directly from my journal, what he said:

“I don’t know many other ways to do my business. I think the best way today would be to take half the phones out of every city room, because you’re dead with stories done on the phone. You’re not going to hold my interest. There has got to be some chemistry and that has to come from the reporter talking to the person involved, face to face, getting those really odd facts that really make the story.”

Even now, 34+ years into my journalism career, I’d rather see someone face to face than get it on telephone or Teams or email. That’s what the job is, or should be.

According to Jimmy Breslin, who did it better than just about anyone else.