N.Y. Daily News fades away

I have  purchased a copy of the N. Y. Daily News for the last time.

I started reading it when I was a child in the 1950s.  My father worked the night shift at a financial printing plant in lower Manhattan and would purchase the early edition on his way home from work sometime after midnight.

When I sat at the kitchen table for breakfast before walking about four blocks to grammar school, the back page would stare me in the face with sports news.  I learned to read the newspaper from back to front.  I enjoyed the sports coverage (especially of the Yankees), the comic strips (long before Peanuts started), the gossip columns and sometimes even the hard news.

My best friend’s father once appeared on the front page when, as a policeman, he captured a burglar, and the News photographer captured the arrest scene.

My father served in World War II and his scrap book contains clippings from the Daily News.

I, too, clipped a number of articles, coupons and comic strips from the paper over the years.

Recently, I noticed that many of the features I liked in the newspaper have disappeared.  I started to only buy the Sunday edition because it still had a number of sections I enjoyed, including the comics, Parade Magazine, weekly TV listings and interesting sports coverage.  It was still a bargain at $1.50.

Then, they raised the price to $2.00, and instead of adding more value, they cut more features.

Now comes the news that they have fired half of their staff.  They claim they want to concentrate on online news. (See the news report at the end of this post.)

I had a further connection to this newspaper.  While attending law school, I worked for a law firm who had offices in the then Daily News Building on 42^nd Street in Manhattan.  The firm even represented the newspaper and I remember being sent into the press room to serve a subpoena on someone representing the labor union. 

But now, with this once great newspaper going down the drain, I do not intend to go down the drain with it.

So, to paraphrase The Beatles, “I heard the news today, oh boy” and it was not good.

Goodbye, old friend.

JULY 23, 2018 / 12:34 PM

Storied tabloid N.Y. Daily News slashes half its news staff

Reuters Staff

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The New York Daily News, the city’s scrappy, 99-year-old tabloid, is laying off half of its editorial staff, as U.S. newspapers continue to struggle with sharply declining advertising revenue and readership, it said on Monday.

The cuts at the Pulitzer Prize-winning daily paper, known for eye-catching front-page headlines and taking on the city’s power players, including real estate developer Donald Trump long before he was elected president, drew criticism from both average readers and politicians who bristled at how the paper covered them.

Owner Tronc Inc said the cuts are intended to make the paper a stronger competitor online.

“We are reducing today the size of the editorial team by approximately 50 percent and refocusing much of our talent on breaking news - especially in the areas of crime, civil justice and public responsibility,” Tronc said in a memo to staff.

The Daily News employed about 85 journalists prior to the announcement, according to rival New York Post, owned by News Corp.

church meets state

Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen was a famous television personality when I was growing up in the 1950s.  He hosted a weekly show called “Life is Worth Living” from 1952 to 1957.  He died in 1979.

Five days before his death, he executed a will directing his funeral be celebrated at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City and that he be buried in Calvary Cemetery in New York, where he had purchased a burial plot.  However, the then Archbishop of New York, Terence Cardinal Cooke, asked Archbishop Sheen’s niece and closest relative for permission to bury her uncle in the crypt at St. Patrick’s Cathedral.  She consented and Sheen was laid to rest in a crypt under the church’s high altar.  His remains are still there.

In 2002, 23 years after Archbishop Sheen’s death, a process was started in his boyhood home of Peoria, Illinois to determine whether he should be canonized as a saint,

In 2014, the Diocese of Peoria requested that Archbishop Sheen’s remains be transferred to Peoria because a shrine was being built there.  Additionally, it was pointed out that his parents are buried there; most of his relatives live nearby and he was ordained as a priest there.

Joan Sheen Cunningham, Archbishop Sheen’s niece, now almost 90 year old, who had originally consented to her uncle’s burial at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, moved in state Supreme Court to have her uncle’s remains disinterred and transported to Peoria for re-burial.

The Court granted her petition to move Archbishop Sheen’s remains to Peoria, Illinois.

The Trustees of St. Patrick’s Cathedral appealed to the next highest court.  Five judges of the Appellate Division, First Department heard the appeal and three voted to overrule the lower court so the remains could stay at St. Patrick’s until a hearing could be held to determine Archbishop Sheen’s wishes. Two judges dissented and agreed with the lower court, which allowed the remains to be transferred.

As of now, the matter is pending a further hearing (before the losing party can appeal to the state’s highest court, the Court of Appeals in Albany).  The remains will remain where they are until a final determination is made.

Interestingly, the majority relied, in part, on an affidavit of Monsignor Hilary Franco, who stated that he worked with Archbishop Sheen and was a close friend.  He wrote that Archbishop Sheen wanted to be buried in New York.  The majority noted a hearing was necessary to look into what the Archbishop’s wishes really were before they could allow a relative to control his remains.

My personal connection:

Monsignor Hilary Franco was the pastor of my parish church for many years and spoke often of Archbishop Sheen in his homilies.  I also dealt with him in my capacity as Town Attorney with regard to parking in fire zones near the church.

I appeared many times as a defense attorney before Judge Rosalyn Richter when she sat in Bronx Criminal Court.  She wrote the majority opinion.

I also appeared before Judge Troy Webber in Bronx Supreme Court.  She joined in the dissent.