Newsday's Breslin: Reagan Funeral 'Cheap, Utterly Distasteful'

America's largest-circulation suburban daily newspaper, Newsday, wins the prize for the ugliest bit of Reagan-bashing on the day of the great man's funeral, publishing a bile-filled screed by columnist Jimmy Breslin that trashed the American icon as "a callous man" who "hated children."

"I don't see how anybody can summon grief" over Reagan's death, Breslin observed. "His whole weeklong funeral is cheap, utterly distasteful American publicity."

The Reagan-bashing writer usually inhabits Newsday's editorial section. But in a remarkably bizarre editorial decision, Newsday decided to move up Breslin's hate-screed to page A8, in the midst of its news section, right behind a page headlined "Paying Respects to Ronald Reagan."

Newsday's Breslin tribute to Reagan continued thusly:

"He was a callous man with a smile who cut taxes in 1981 and left [New York] city and state without funds for such things as help for dependent children. He proudly hurt the boroughs of this city more than anyone before or after him. If you live in Brooklyn, the record shows that Ronald Reagan hated children."

Actually, Reagan's economic policies were a boon for New York - both city and state.

"Before the Gipper came along, New York, the city, was an economic disaster area," noted New York Post columnist Robert Ward on Friday." But during his tenure, "Wall Street boomed, and thus, so did city and state revenues."

New York City added 254,000 jobs and hundreds of thousands of new residents, Ward noted. Their taxes helped fund the war on crime, rebuild infrastructure and minister to thousands afflicted with AIDs.

Most of which, apparently, went unnoticed by Breslin, who proclaimed that a suitable memorial for Reagan would be to put his face on a $3 bill.

Newsday's editors liked the idea so much they used it to headline his column.

Editor's note: