Yeah, Jimmy Breslin Knew
The Mean Streets Of New York City
1969 campaign button when the two journalists Mailer for NYC Mayor and Breslin for Council President played the political game fast and loose -with plenty of humor.
By Sam Lowell
To be honest you don’t
really see or hear political columnists nowadays whom you remember two minutes
later. Here is a little test-listen to say a day’s worth of programming on NPR.
The announcers and hosts, what the British call “readers” all could have the
same name they sound so much alike-male and female-and so “objective.” All of
this to moan about the old days when guys like the recently departed New York
newspaper columnist Jimmy Breslin held forth. Guys too like Hunter Thompson,
Norman Mailer, George Plimpton, hell, even Dwight MacDonald and William Buckley
fought it out tooth and nail whatever the subject. With plenty of brickbats and
back-stabbings to add a little oil to the fire.
Maybe it is the nature
of the times or maybe the story of the “little people,” no, not the ones you
see when you have had a big night at the bar, but ordinary working stiffs and
assorted other is no longer in fashion but those shoot-from-the-hip journalists
kept things hopping. And probably the guy closest to the ground, closest to the
mean streets was Jimmy Breslin. He made many mistakes, got pulled back a few
times for “political incorrectness” and rightly so but you could actually sit
down and read his stuff, sometimes with a chuckle sometimes with a “what the
hell” without having to have the feeling
that you wasted your perfectly good time doing so. That is as high a compliment
as I want to pay. RIP, Jimmy, RIP
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