Transcript

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Geoff Bennett: From John F. Kennedy’s assassination to the Son of Sam murders, Jimmy Breslin famously covered the major events of the 20th century as a columnist for The New York Daily News.

Whether working as a copy boy or later winning the Pulitzer Prize for commentary, Breslin’s plainspoken approach captured the country’s attention, offering readers a poetic and blunt perspective on the issues that mattered most.

“Jimmy Breslin: The Man Who Told the Truth” is the first biography of the legendary writer and a revealing portrait of a complex newsman.

I spoke recently to author Richard Esposito.

Welcome to the “News Hour.”

Richard Esposito, Author, “Jimmy Breslin: The Man Who Told the Truth”: Thank you. It’s great to be here.

Geoff Bennett: Jimmy Breslin had such a unique way of telling stories, from the perspective of ordinary people, as some might remember when he covered the funeral services of John F. Kennedy.

He tracked down the man who dug JFK’s grave and wrote a column about him. What influenced his approach?

Richard Esposito: Anybody can stand next to everybody else and tell that part of a story. And, in fact, when he went down there, he said, I’m not standing with 10,000 people scribbling down notes and taking pictures. I will find the story.

So he went to Mr. Pollard’s house and watched him eat his breakfast, put on his coveralls, and go to Arlington Cemetery to dig the grave. So what does that approach do? It puts you in a story. And now you’re with someone who’s you’re capturing pain and loss through the eyes of the man who’s digging the grave.

And, as you’re reading it, you realize you’re learning everything you need to know about Jackie O.’s pain, about the children without a father. And, most importantly, he captures America’s hope essentially going into that hole. That’s his approach.

Geoff Bennett: What drew you to him? Why write a biography of Jimmy Breslin?

Richard Esposito: I got asked that question a few times.

I felt a voice that big, his story needed to be told. For 50 years, he told stories about America. Selma, Alabama, he was there. The death of Martin Luther King, he was there. RFK, he traveled with him to California and was there as he got shot.

When New York City was in the throes of violence he wrote about young people getting killed for their coats. When Jimmy Carter promised to revive Charlotte Street in the South Bronx, which had been burnt down, he followed that story. I felt someone who stood for people for 50 years was worth telling the story, because he also stood for you and me, because we got to learn from that, how to tell stories.

And that’s why I did it.

Geoff Bennett: His writing was equal parts profane and profound at times.

Richard Esposito: That’s a great way to put it.

Geoff Bennett: Yes. Yes. What set him apart from his peers?

Richard Esposito: Plain English turned into poetry. Somebody described him once as like a cab driver who wrote like Yeats.

So he had short and simple sentences that people could read on the subway went back when people turned the pages of newspapers, 1,000-word short story that when you get off the train you felt something of beauty in it. And even when he told the story with pain, he remembered to give you a little humor in there.

And that humor is something that you can walk out of the train and on your way to work and have a little smile as well. So that was his gift.

Geoff Bennett: One of the most notable moments — and you capture this in the book — was when Jimmy Breslin received letters from the Son of Sam during those murders.

How did he handle that morally and professionally?

Richard Esposito: Those are two of the best questions, because that was the mix of selling newspapers. They sold millions of copies.

And Son of Sam — his boss said, if we could have put the postage stamp in the paper to sell another 20, we would have put the postage stamp. And this is guy who went to Cornell and was a gifted reporter himself.

Jimmy normally had hours to write. With Son of Sam, he had days to think about that letter. And what he wrote, he wrote to Son of Sam. He was responding to the letter. That was professional and profound.

And then there was, turn yourself into me. That was the buffoon and the comedian. And you read that and you go, this is why people say tabloids are bad. What he was saying was, this is why tabloids are good. We’re telling stories to working people.

So he was a mix, the professional, the profane, and sometimes the buffoon. He was larger than life. Someone once said, Jimmy Breslin was in a movie produced by Jimmy Breslin, starring Jimmy Breslin, and the rest of us were just characters in the movie. That’s how he viewed the world.

(Laughter)

Geoff Bennett: What do you think he’d make of today’s media landscape and the ways in which journalism is practiced today?

Richard Esposito: You know, it’s a question you and I probably ask ourselves every day. What do we make of this landscape?

There were two parts to that. He felt — when the Internet started, he called me one day and he said: “This is a gale coming and I’m going with it and the rest of you guys are stuck here.”

He saw that he could write for this new media him. What he made of it was its distribution and how do you get your stories out. I think what he’d make of it now is, we’re in a lot of silos right now and we’re all sort of reading what we already believe. A little tricky that, you know?

And I’m hoping some voices emerge — and I think they will — that transcend the silos, so we all have some common things to talk about. Whether we agree with each other or not, it’s not the point. It’s that we could disagree about something we have all learned.

So I think he would do fine. How someone who grew up in his era would do in a newsroom, the mores of newsrooms have changed. And people don’t go around screaming, yelling at the top of their lungs and drinking and smoking.

So I often wonder, would he have changed and fit in with the newsroom too?

Geoff Bennett: I doubt it.

(Laughter)

Richard Esposito: Probably not, right? You have read the book. So, you know.

Geoff Bennett: Yes, that’s right. That’s right.

The book is “Jimmy Breslin: The Man Who Told the Truth” by Richard Esposito, with reporting by Ted Gerstein.

Great to speak with you. Thanks so much.

Richard Esposito: Such a pleasure. Thanks for having me.