Breslin: The champion of common man

We live in an unjust world.  It is as if a wicked minded architect dreamt of structure of this kind of society where in common man always suffers, always at the receiving end.  Common man suffers silently.  Does anybody care?  Yes.  Press cares for common man.  In this tragic scenario only press seems to be a small ray of hope for common man.  Press takes up the cudgel on behalf of common man against injustice done to him.  Jimmy Breslin, the legendary American journalist, who passed away on the 19^th March this year at the age of 88 was regarded as a Champion of Common Man.  Breslin elevated the powerless for more than 50 years.  Breslin’s demise is  a big loss for journalism and common man has lost a friend.

Breslin wrote a book “The church that forgot Christ”.  In this book, he exposed the church’s sex scandals.  His columns in the newspaper were very popular because he injected the novelistic techniques into his columns.  He once said that the rage was the only quality which had kept him writing.  His close friend Mario Cuomo said that Breslin was writing or thinking about writing for more than 50 years except for a short period when he was unwell and doctor had to drill a hole in his head in his congested brain to let out some of his unused line.  Breslin even wrote a book about this incident. 

Breslin’s career as an investigative journalist, led him to cultivate ties with various mafia and criminal elements always not with positive results. Once he was viciously attacked and beaten.  He suffered a major concussion and nose bleeding.  He survived the ordeal without any permanent injury. Breslin didn’t set out to be a reporter in the traditional sense. He was more interested in the prowling the street of common man for his stories. What set him apart from other reporters was he listened to common man and wrote his column in a distinctive language.

Once a mafia man wrote a letter to Breslin about his columns in the newspapers and appreciated Breslin’s honesty. Breslin’s reaction was ‘the guy can write better than me’.

In 1986, Breslin was awarded the PulitzerPrize for his sympathetic view point of the working class people of the New York City. Always his columns were reserved for…..

‘Ordinary Citizens’.