{"id":41197,"date":"2020-08-05T23:26:00","date_gmt":"2020-08-05T20:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/why-the-post-will-never-forget-tabloid-journalism-hero-pete-hamill\/"},"modified":"2020-08-05T23:26:00","modified_gmt":"2020-08-05T20:26:00","slug":"why-the-post-will-never-forget-tabloid-journalism-hero-pete-hamill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/why-the-post-will-never-forget-tabloid-journalism-hero-pete-hamill\/","title":{"rendered":"#Why The Post will never forget tabloid journalism hero Pete Hamill"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Why The Post will never forget tabloid journalism hero Pete Hamill<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

\n Legendary columnist Pete Hamill, who passed away on Monday at 85, was a tabloid journalism hero and a celebrated novelist and screenwriter for 60 years. But for me, the zenith of Pete\u2019s career was the zany month he spent as The Post\u2019s editor-in-chief in the bitter winter of 1993.<\/p>\n

The news<\/a>paper was being fought over by two wealthy, trash-talking buffoons after bankrupt owner Peter Kalikow\u2019s banks cut off his credit. The staff favored medical industry financier Steve Hoffenberg for being only slightly less terrifying than real estate magnate Abe Hirschfeld, who said he would fire half of the staff and would likely turn the building at 210 South St. into a parking garage.<\/p>\n

Hoffenberg, under siege by federal authorities for tax and securities fraud, named Hamill editor in February. He had never heard of Hamill until Cindy Adams whispered it in his ear. His fabled name would make The Post a media<\/a> darling \u2014 and possibly thwart the government\u2019s pursuit of Hoffenberg, which would surely lead to the paper\u2019s closing.<\/p>\n

But Hoffenberg, his assets frozen, was forced to bring Hirschfeld in as a partner. \u201cHonest Abe\u201d came on board the same day that Pete became editor \u2014 Feb. 22, 1993. It launched a month-long circus unrivaled in journalism annals.<\/p>\n

Pete\u2019s illustrious career had started at The Post in 1960. Now he waded back into the city room with a touch of Hollywood swagger, trailing the charisma of a man who\u2019d wooed Shirley MacLaine and Jacqueline Onassis. He wore a tie loose around his neck as if he was about to knot it \u2014 which he never did.<\/p>\n

His arrival instantly electrified the beaten-down staff, who couldn\u2019t believe their eyes. Pete laughed off Hirschfeld\u2019s demands to run photos of scantily-clad women on Page One and to publish his wife Zipora\u2019s poetry. He created a daily \u201cmagazine,\u201d hired new reporters and fended off raids on our depleted staff by the Daily News.<\/p>\n

\u201cLou, cut the bleep out,\u201d he barked over the phone at the enemy editor.<\/p>\n

Pete wanted to dump our \u201cGarfield\u201d comic strip<\/a> for \u201cKrazy Kat,\u201d a cult strip of the 1940s, until we talked him out of it. But he was a tough-as-nails newsman. He gave the green light to a risky expose of food poisoning at the Plaza Hotel, then owned by Donald Trump, who dismissed it as a \u201cstomach flu.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pete shielded us from the vicious Hoffenberg-Hirschfeld power struggle. He counseled us, \u201cWhatever\u2019s going on between these two, we\u2019re not voting on Abe or Steve. We vote for The New York Post.\u201d<\/p>\n

But with Hoffenberg\u2019s funds frozen, Hirschfeld seized the paper for himself when a US bankruptcy judge awarded it to him on March 12. He immediately fired Hamill and ordered him out of the building, conveying the news through a subordinate.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou didn\u2019t have the balls to tell me yourself, you coward,\u201d Pete raged at Hirschfeld by phone. \u201cYou wouldn\u2019t do it to my face, you little p\u2014k!\u201d<\/p>\n

Even in defeat, Pete rallied the troops. \u201cThe fight may not be over yet,\u201d he said. \u201cThis fight isn\u2019t really about me.\u201d<\/p>\n

When a staffer said he\u2019d drink poison Kool-Aid for him, Pete drew laughs with, \u201cHey, just have the cafeteria coffee.\u201d<\/p>\n

The staff mutinied with an entire edition devoted to vilifying Abe Hirschfeld. Past the famous front page with an image of a weeping Post founder Alexander Hamilton were dozens of stories with headlines like \u201cWho is this nut\u201d and \u201cLoon over Miami,\u201d the latter illustrated with a photo of crazy Abe spitting on a Miami reporter.<\/p>\n

We restored Hamill\u2019s name to the masthead. He returned in triumph the next day sporting a trench coat and his loose tie. \u201cThat front page was an act of journalistic courage unprecedented in this century,\u201d he told the delirious staff. \u201cI saw my name listed on the masthead.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hollywood pause. \u201cI figured I better come in and edit the paper.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPete! Pete! Pete!\u201d<\/p>\n

He reclaimed his office, which was filled with photos of his beloved 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers. His victory column began, \u201cIt is St. Patrick\u2019s Day and I\u2019m reminded of an Irish proverb: contention is better than loneliness. Nobody is now lonely at this newspaper.\u201d He slammed the \u201cwitless\u201d judge who had turned America\u2019s oldest continuously-published daily newspaper over to a clown.<\/p>\n

The following days saw one \u201cdeal\u201d after another to save the paper fall through. We mounted a save-the-Post rally in a next-door diner attended by then-Gov. Mario Cuomo. Pete papered over the situation\u2019s hopelessness with, \u201cExuberance, exultation, apprehension \u2014 there\u2019s no script<\/a>. We hope the white knights arrive in time.\u201d<\/p>\n

It seemed over for good when Hirschfeld got a court order to throw Hamill out of the building. But he defiantly \u201cedited\u201d the paper from the diner, phoning in orders to amused news editors.<\/p>\n

Pete\u2019s inspirational leadership galvanized support for The Post around the country \u2014 even in a New York Times editorial. A week later, the judge unexpectedly ordered Hirschfeld to take Hamill back as editor for two weeks to sort things out. It kept us alive just long enough. The sliver of time was all Rupert Murdoch needed to put together a bid to buy the paper back from Hirschfeld and to put it back on its feet.<\/p>\n

Hamill graciously declined Murdoch\u2019s equally gracious offer to remain as editor. But I\u2019ll never forget the fire and joy he brought to the beleaguered newspaper in its hour of need.<\/p>\n

Sleep well, my friend. You\u2019ll always be on The Post masthead of our dreams.\n <\/p><\/div>\n

\n

If you want to read more Opinion News articles, you can visit our General category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“#Why The Post will never forget tabloid journalism hero Pete Hamill” Legendary columnist Pete Hamill, who passed away on Monday at 85, was a tabloid journalism hero and a celebrated novelist and screenwriter for 60 years. But for me, the zenith of Pete\u2019s career was the zany month he spent as The Post\u2019s editor-in-chief in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":41198,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[49285],"class_list":["post-41197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-why-the-post-will-never-forget-tabloid-journalism-hero-pete-hamill"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41197"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41197\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}