Michael James McAlary (December 15, 1957 – December 25, 1998)
was an American
journalist
A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...
and
columnist
A columnist is a person who writes for publication in a series, creating an article that usually offers commentary and opinions. Column (newspaper), Columns appear in newspapers, magazines and other publications, including blogs. They take the fo ...
who worked at the ''
New York Daily News
The New York ''Daily News'', officially titled the ''Daily News'', is an American newspaper based in Jersey City, NJ. It was founded in 1919 by Joseph Medill Patterson as the ''Illustrated Daily News''. It was the first U.S. daily printed in ta ...
'' for 12 years, beginning with the police beat. He won a
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made h ...
in 1998 for his columns exposing police brutality against Haitian immigrant
Abner Louima
Abner Louima (born November 24, 1966 in Thomassin, Haiti) is a Haitian American man who, in 1997, was physically attacked, brutalized, and raped by officers of the New York City Police Department (NYPD) after he was arrested outside a Brooklyn n ...
.
[
He was sued for ]libel
Defamation is the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person, place or thing that results in damage to its reputation. It can be spoken (slander) or written (libel). It constitutes a tort or a crime. The legal defini ...
by a woman he had accused of lying in her claim that she had been raped. He also wrote five books inspired by cases he had covered. McAlary died of colon cancer in 1998 at the age of 41.[Martin Garbus]
"The damage done by a 'Lucky Guy'
''The New York Times'', April 2, 2013.
Life and career
Born in 1957, McAlary started his journalism career as a sportswriter in Boston. He moved to New York to fill a similar position with the ''New York Post
The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates NYPost.com, the celebrity gossip site PageSix.com, and the entertainment site Decider.com.
It was established ...
''. In 1985 he became a reporter for ''New York Newsday
''New York Newsday'' was an American daily newspaper that primarily served New York City and was sold throughout the New York metropolitan area. The paper, established in 1985, was a New York City-specific offshoot of ''Newsday'', a Long Island- ...
'', the major newspaper on Long Island. He left that position to become a columnist for the ''New York Daily News''. He also wrote columns for the ''Post'', jumping frequently between it and the "Daily News".
In 1988, McAlary wrote a non-fiction book, ''Buddy Boys'', about corrupt police in New York's 77th Precinct, in the Brooklyn North patrol borough. He also had a hand in writing the script for the movie ''Cop Land
''Cop Land'' is a 1997 American neo-noir crime drama film written and directed by James Mangold. It stars an ensemble cast that includes Sylvester Stallone, Harvey Keitel, Ray Liotta, and Robert De Niro, with Peter Berg, Janeane Garofalo, Robe ...
'', starring Sylvester Stallone
Sylvester Enzio Stallone (; born Michael Sylvester Gardenzio Stallone, ) is an American actor and filmmaker. After his beginnings as a struggling actor for a number of years upon arriving to New York City in 1969 and later Hollywood in 1974, h ...
and Robert De Niro.
In 1990, McAlary wrote a piece referring to a gang leader named Lefty, who had a friend killed in city gang warfare. Four years later, McAlary interviewed Lefty anew. By then the former gang leader was a decorated soldier, family man, and college student. He attributed his about-face to McAlary's 1990 article. McAlary ended his 1994 piece by writing, "I am humbled by his talent. Sure, as a columnist, you can get people indicted and even free the wrongly accused. That is what you do. But from now on, I know, at least once, I wrote a story that mattered."
For the ''Daily News'' McAlary exposed the torture of Abner Louima
Abner Louima (born November 24, 1966 in Thomassin, Haiti) is a Haitian American man who, in 1997, was physically attacked, brutalized, and raped by officers of the New York City Police Department (NYPD) after he was arrested outside a Brooklyn n ...
, a Haitian immigrant, by New York City Police
The New York City Police Department (NYPD), officially the City of New York Police Department, established on May 23, 1845, is the primary municipal law enforcement agency within the New York City, City of New York, the largest and one of ...
at a Brooklyn station in August 1997. Next year he won the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary
The Pulitzer Prize for Commentary is an award administered by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism "for distinguished commentary, using any available journalistic tool". It is one of the fourteen American Pulitzer Prizes that are ...
, based on his coverage of the story from August to October.["The 1998 Pulitzer Prize Winners: Commentary"]
The Pulitzer Prizes. Retrieved 2013-10-31. With short biography and reprints of 7 works (''Daily News'' articles from August 13 to October 10, 1997). He was also a finalist in the category Breaking News Reporting, re-classed as Commentary by the Board.
McAlary's most controversial story, for the ''Daily News'' in 1994, was about a woman who said she had been raped while walking home with groceries through Prospect Park, in Brooklyn. Unnamed police sources told McAlary that she made up the story, because she wanted to promote a rally about violence against lesbians
A lesbian is a homosexual woman.Zimmerman, p. 453. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate nouns with femal ...
. McAlary's police sources said there were inconsistencies in her story, and a lack of physical evidence. The police department later discovered DNA evidence, but no arrests were made at the time.
McAlary accepted the original police account of events, and wrote three columns about it, including one headlined, "Rape hoax the real crime." The woman sued McAlary for libel, but the case was dismissed because McAlary had been relying on information from the police.
In 2018, using advanced modern techniques, the New York police matched the DNA to James Edward Webb, who by then had been convicted of serial rape and was serving 75 years to life in prison for those other crimes. The statute of limitations had expired for prosecution of Webb for the 1994 Prospect Park case. Both the newspaper and the New York City Police have formally apologized to the woman for "letting her down."
McAlary's idols were New York journalists Jimmy Breslin
James Earle Breslin (October 17, 1928 – March 19, 2017) was an American journalist and author. Until the time of his death, he wrote a column for the New York ''Daily News'' Sunday edition.''Current Biography 1942'', pp. 648–51: "Patterson, ...
, Murray Kempton, and Pete Hamill
Pete Hamill (born William Peter Hamill; June 24, 1935August 5, 2020) was an American journalist, novelist, essayist and editor. During his career as a New York City journalist, he was described as "the author of columns that sought to capture th ...
. During his reporting of the Louima case, McAlary was being treated for colon cancer
Colorectal cancer (CRC), also known as bowel cancer, colon cancer, or rectal cancer, is the development of cancer from the colon or rectum (parts of the large intestine). Signs and symptoms may include blood in the stool, a change in bowel mo ...
. He left a chemotherapy session after getting a tip about the assault. He died on Christmas Day 1998, at age 41, eight months after winning the Pulitzer. He was a resident of Bellport
Bellport is a village in the Town of Brookhaven in Suffolk County, on the South Shore of Long Island, in New York, United States. The population was 2,084 at the 2010 census.
The Incorporated Village of Bellport is named after the Bell family, ...
, New York, at the time of his death.[
]
Representation in other media
*In '' The Paper'' (1994), a film directed by Ron Howard
Ronald William Howard (born March 1, 1954) is an American director, producer, screenwriter, and actor. He first came to prominence as a child actor, guest-starring in several television series, including an episode of ''The Twilight Zone''. He ...
, a columnist named McDougal and played by Randy Quaid
Randy Randall Rudy Quaid (born October 1, 1950) is an American actor known for his roles in both serious drama and light comedy.
He was nominated for an Academy Award, BAFTA Award and a Golden Globe Award for his role in ''The Last Detail'' i ...
may have been based on McAlary. The columnist also had a cameo role
A cameo role, also called a cameo appearance and often shortened to just cameo (), is a brief appearance of a well-known person in a work of the performing arts. These roles are generally small, many of them non-speaking ones, and are commonly ei ...
in the film.
*Dan Klores wrote the play ''The Wood'', based on McAlary's life, which premiered at Manhattan's Rattlestick Playwrights Theater in August 2011.
*Nora Ephron
Nora Ephron ( ; May 19, 1941 – June 26, 2012) was an American journalist, writer, and filmmaker. She is best known for her romantic comedy films and was nominated three times for the Writers Guild of America Award and the Academy Award f ...
wrote the play '' Lucky Guy'', also about McAlary, which opened on Broadway
Broadway may refer to:
Theatre
* Broadway Theatre (disambiguation)
* Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
** Broadway (Manhattan), the street
**Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...
in a limited run on April 1, 2013, starring Tom Hanks
Thomas Jeffrey Hanks (born July 9, 1956) is an American actor and filmmaker. Known for both his comedic and dramatic roles, he is one of the most popular and recognizable film stars worldwide, and is regarded as an American cultural icon. Ha ...
, the playwright's longtime friend and film colleague.
Books by McAlary
Non-fiction:
* ''Buddy Boys: when good cops turn bad'' (1987)
* ''Cop Shot: the murder of Edward Byrne'' (1990)
* ''Good Cop, Bad Cop: Detective Joe Trimboli's heroic pursuit of NYPD Officer Michael Dowd'' (1994)
Novels:
* ''Cop Land: based on the screenplay by James Mangold'' (1997)
* ''Sore Loser: a Mickey Donovan mystery'' (1998)
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:McAlary, Mike
1957 births
1998 deaths
American male journalists
20th-century American journalists
Pulitzer Prize for Commentary winners
Deaths from colorectal cancer
New York Post people
Newsday people
New York Daily News people
People from Bellport, New York
20th-century American non-fiction writers
20th-century American male writers