Do Something
The great Pete Hamill, a newspaper legend in New York who began his career at the New York Post in 1960, served as that paper’s editor-in-chief for five weeks during the early ’90s.
Hamill knew his stint would be a short one — on the brink of extinction, the paper actively was seeking new ownership — but he wanted to make his mark. So, during that short time span, he made the following decree: News is a verb.
Hamill believed that just saying you were going to do something wasn’t enough. To be reported on in Hamill’s New York Post, something had to happen.
Feeling the full brunt of this decision was none other than Donald Trump.
Trump, who claims to be New York’s biggest developer, had made a career of self-promotion. Seemingly not a week would pass without “The Donald” announcing plans to build the world’s tallest building on the city’s West Side, announcing plans to build the most elaborate casino in Atlantic City, announcing plans to marry some new starlet. For tabloids like the Post, this was usually front-page fodder.
Hamill believed Trump was the biggest non-story in New York, and in many ways Trump was nothing more than a facade at the time. By the early ’90s, Trump was completely bankrupt. The buildings that bore his name typically were owned by foreign companies. Once, when he was panhandled by a homeless person, Trump told him he was $2 billion poorer than the man.
Trying to rebuild his fortune, Hamill’s decision enraged Trump. It has even been alleged that in order to get around the semi-ban, Trump had called in a news lead about himself in a disguised voice. Nevertheless, when Hamill was dumped from the position after about a month, the first front-page story under the new editor was one about Trump. (As any fan of prime time TV now knows, Trump is back on his feet and worth an estimated $1.6 billion today.)
I’m reminded of all of this because of the recent Newsweek scandal. One night, I attended a social gathering at one of the magazine’s editor’s house and framed in the bathroom was a scathing letter from Trump regarding a story he took issue with. In the letter, Trump pointed out that ad sales in the magazine had taken a nosedive under the editor’s watch. Funny stuff.
It’s also the last time I read a copy of Newsweek. That’s why I was more than a little surprised to hear that Afghani jihadists are among the magazine’s subscribers these days (and that their mail system was faster than Parkville’s).
Something’s not right with this Qu’ran desecration story and subsequent retraction from Newsweek. For one, the allegation that American prison keepers had abused copies of the Muslim holy text is not a new one - the American Red Cross wrote about it last year, and it was covered by several media outlets then. Newsweek is a convenient scapegoat for the White House on the issue, which blames the magazine reporters for 16 American deaths in subsequent rioting.
News gathering is a verb, too. The allegations that American servicemen desecrated the Qu’ran is nothing new, so what is being called into question here is Newsweek’s source on the story. And that should rightfully be called into question.
Hamill, with his memories of the old-school reporter fresh in his mind, has ideas about that, too.
“They [reporters] tried very hard never to write anything that would bring the newspaper shame,” Hamill writes in “News is a Verb.” “They would be appalled…they didn’t pay whores for stories. They didn’t sniff around the private lives of politicians like agents from the vice squad. Even in large groups, on major stories, the photographers didn’t behave like a writhing, snarling, mindless centipede, all legs and Leicas, falling upon some poor witness like an instrument of punishment. Somehow, they found ways to get the story without behaving like thugs or louts.”
Well written, Mr. Hamill…as always.