The legendary and Pulitzer winning journalist Jimmy Breslin passed away on Sunday, March 19. He left behind his distinctive and somewhat controversial journalistic style.
Breslin is a journalist whose boldness and rudeness is unparallel according to New York Daily News. As a New York native, he has a tenacity to write for his hometown.
Known for his keen eye for seeking the other side of the story, Breslin started his unique approach to the news in 1963, during President John F. Kennedy funeral. Instead of taking the route like the other journalist covering the story, he looked at different angle.
He searched the person who had dug the grave for President Kennedy, Clifton Pollard and wrote his story, instead of the situation surrounding the funeral. From then on, his journalistic style has changed journalism.
His consistency to look at the important event from the ordinary people's eyes earned him the Pulitzer. In 1986, Breslin won Pulitzer Prize for Commentary in his New York Daily News column. The award was given "for columns which consistently champion ordinary citizens."
For four decades, Breslin wrote for many New York daily newspapers as reported by New York Post. His column can be read on New York Daily News, New York Herald Tribune, New York Post and the Long Island's newspaper Newsday.
However, his blatant comment and temperament once gave him a big trouble. It was in 1990 when his colleague, a Korean-American journalist Maria Yuh criticized Breslin's column as sexist.
Outraged by criticism from a young journalist, he expressed his anger in a newsroom when Yuh was not even present. Breslin even said the racial slur about the Asian American, which made him to be suspended for two weeks. Later he wrote a letter of apology and admitted his mistake.
He was retired in 2004 and three years later he sat down with The New York Times journalist Jim Dwyer to talk about his perspective. Watch the interview below"
