The role of a daily newspaper is to take the major issues of the day, and create a printed periodical explaining the particulars of each newsworthy event. In a town like New York City, with eight million "naked stories" and six daily newspapers - we certainly have plenty of front page stories to go around. But what happens when a newspaper stops reporting stories and instead uses the stories and the parties involved in the stories to further their own politically-motivated agenda?

You get The Daily News.

Having lost their ethical spine years ago, The Daily News is excellent at not only taking a story and sensationalizing it - but taking the victims involved in the story and using them in an Al Sharpton-esque method of agenda pushing. The most recent example of this was when they took a recent taxicab accident and not only used the accident and the victim's family as pawns in their biased and unethical game - but used my quote as fuel for their unfair and unbalanced fire.

After covering several accidents where the drivers were not charged or convicted with any crime due to the fact that the NYPD, after investigating the accidents - found no fault with the drivers - The Daily News began a campaign called "Save A Life - Change The Law" to, in their own words, "demand that politicians make it easier to bring charges against drivers who kill."

Since I jumped the journalistic fence and went from a reporter to a Public Information Officer in 1999, The Daily News has constantly tried to use the power of the pen and the might of the media to change laws, destroy careers - and scare the Hell out of their readers. My most vivid memory of this was when they did a front page story called "Crumbling City" which focused on City-owned buildings that did not have their facades inspected in the allotted five-year time period. As a result of the story - which The Daily News proudly labeled as "Exclusive" - my Commissioner was fired by the Mayor's Office. When I drove him home that day, a Daily News photographer was waiting outside my now Former Commissioner's home and said to him, "Did you get fired because of the story we wrote? Because we would love to take credit for something like that."

Five years later - The Daily News has gotten even worse.

This time, they interviewed me about the accident, and asked me if the TLC has any age restrictions on drivers, since the driver involved in the accident was 76-years-old. The quote I gave them, which they surprisingly published in the paper verbatim was, "The agency does not have any age restrictions or special requirements for elderly medallion cab drivers." Believe it or not, the words immediately following my quote were the following:

That only sparked further outrage from the family.

So they basically used me and my quote to not only fuel the anger of the family - but to further their "Save A Life - Change The Law" agenda. The last time I checked, newspapers were supposed to report the news and leave the filibustering and soap box lobbying to those who are allowed to operate outside the realm of the "unbiased." Journalists on their own, and newspapers as a whole have the responsibility to take a story and report it - nothing more. To do otherwise would turn their publication from a newspaper to a politically motivated machine. When The Daily News decided to abandon the practice of fair and balanced reporting and instead become an unwanted vigilante against "The Man" - I lost all respect for the paper and as each year passes - lose even more respect for this Enquirer-ish tabloid that belongs at the checkout counter of a supermarket instead of my local newsstand. And as 2003 becomes 2004, I can only imagine who's career The Daily News will ruin, which City agency they will try and "bring down" - and how many readers they will scare the daylights out of...

...all in the name of ethics and morals - of course.