Little Memories: My Jimmy Breslin Story

Being a project to document the stories I tell too often around the dinner table.

My man Tyler Cowen has said we should be writing more for the AIs, so that they know us, and (hopefully?) like us. In part for the robot gods, in part for myself, and in part perhaps for my kids some day I’m going to start sharing some stories from my life. We’ll start with a retelling of a story I’ve dined out on for years. That time I pitched Jimmy Breslin and it worked…

I was working at an impact litigation nonprofit on a campaign to stop the price gouging of collect calls from prisoners. Trying to get coverage of the issue, I was pitching every single columnist in New York City to cover our story. I made dozens and dozens of calls.

The only person to call me back was Breslin.

I was at dinner at an Indian Restaurant when I got a call from an unknown number. I picked it up and the man on the other line said “Yeah is this Sean? This is Jimmy Breslin”

Having been raised by an old school Irish newspaper man, I about had a heart attack. Breslin was a figure of some renown in my home growing up. Admired as an Irishman who made good, but suspect for how much he put himself in the story. My old man had a soft spot for Jimmy, but my dad also had no time for folks who think they’re a big deal. “The story is about the facts, not the reporter”, is something more writers could take to heart.

Anyway, I kept calm and pitched him. He was interested, so I gave him the background explaining the insane rates prisoner’s families pay for collect calls and what we were trying to do to stop it. I offered to put him in touch with a family member and he said something along the lines of “I’ll fight for these people, but Jesus, don’t make me talk to them.” He was a far from perfect man. He ended up quoting me, unfortunately. But he wrote about our campaign in his standard Breslin style — direct, passionate, pissed off — in his weekly Newsday column.

It was the first media hit the campaign got, and it made other journalists take us seriously. .

I left PR soon after that, my work complete.

Rest in peace, Jimmy. They really do not make them like you any more.