When I was the Assistant Publisher of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle back in 1997, I represented the Eagle at the Gifts For Special Children Program, which donates gifts to special children every Christmas. The Program delivered gifts to many different charitable organizations – one of which was Hale House. So I accompanied the members of the Program as they visited the well-known Harlem home for children who are born either addicted to drugs, or with the HIV virus.

Before that visit in 1997, I was never at Hale House before – and I have never returned since. But from that one and only visit – I left with such an overwhelming sense of appreciation for what Mother Hale and her daughter, Dr. Lorraine Hale have done for the children who they cared for. Even almost four years later, my heart still goes out to the Hales for caring for children they have no connection to and who were victims of abuse before they even left their mother’s womb.

Besides myself, it seemed as if everyone, from celebrities to politicians to the people who donated the gifts we brought to Hale House that day, felt what I felt and thought that Hale House was a Godsend and a haven for the dedication, selflessness and care they provided to the helpless, innocent children that needed them – everyone that is – but the New York Daily News.

With each new day that passes, I hate that paper more and more. I remember, as a young man, when the stories on the front page and inside the paper were the current events of the day, the goings on around the world, and the latest sports scores. Today – the paper has become a tool to take a person who has dedicated their lives to what they believe in and publicly tar and feather them. The paper’s goal is no longer to report the news – but to create it. They have no desire to get quotes from the prominent people in the community and the City – but to target one in particular and do so many stories on that person or the organization they represent that the person in question is forced to resign. They did it last year to my Commissioner – and now – they are doing it to Dr. Hale and Hale House.

I am so disgusted by what this paper is doing to this organization that I want to buy every copy of the paper and set them ablaze so that no one can read the garbage they churn out every day. To think that a paper would publish a different story day after day on the front page saying such scathing things about this organization that the counsel that represents Hale House dropped them as clients, Mia Farrow, the celebrity at their latest fund raiser pulled out of the event – and now Dr. Hale is being forced to resign and turn the organization her own mother founded over to a Board of Directors is the disgrace of disgraces.

I can’t fathom how the staff of this paper sleeps at night feeling proud of what they do to the people they target. How they close their eyes and get a good night’s sleep while their “victims” lie awake wondering why the paper chose them as their latest moneymaking opportunity is beyond me. This is why I could never go back to journalism if I ever leave City service – because to align myself with people like this would compromise every principle in my body.

In today’s society the journalist of yesteryear is just that – a thing of the past. Today’s new breed of journalists are more like private detectives and hitmen rather then reporters. Instead of gaining notoriety for writing a factual and well written story like their predecessors – today’s journalist gains fame by “taking down’ a politician, or by forcing an organization to close because they “exposed a scandal” within the company – so much for your unbiased, ethical journalist.

I still support Hale House and commend Dr. Hale for all they have done for children who have had such selfish, inconsiderate vermin for parents that they passed AIDS and drug addictions to their unborn children. Who I will not support or commend however, are the selfish inconsiderate vermin at the New York Daily News who picked Hale House as their latest target. The unfortunate thing is that while Dr. Hale and Hale House are the paper’s current victim – eventually the wrath they have incurred on her and her organization will be old news – and the jackals will need fresh meat to sink their teeth into.

Lord have mercy on the next innocent victim they prey on – and I hope that when these jackals cash in their chips – they get a taste of their own medicine – and they choke on it.