Journalism is often referred to as a first draft of history. But more than that, newspapers, especially tabloids, have traditionally been the narrative, the connective tissues that binds diverse and disparate communities. They have explained community to the newcomers and explained the newcomers to the community. Through that local tabloid narrative, we've witnessed and tried to understand the conflicts and follies of daily life. And from that we form our own understanding of the world. Tabloids in short are the raw material that drives our own op ed view of the world; a kind of Rosetta Stone for understanding life. This is a context of tabloid journalism that no one understands better than Pete Hamill. Part of a generation that defined newspapermen, he has been the Editor of two great NY tabloids, he’s the author of over twenty books, along with his heartfelt memoir A Drinking Life
. My conversation with Pete Hamil about his latest, Tabloid City
