A pen of steel and a heart of gold

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A pen of steel and a heart of gold

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Posted by By JAMES McQUEENY on October 14, 2003 at 19:23:24:

A pen of steel and a heart of gold

By JAMES McQUEENY

New Jersey is a place where media treasures can be hard to find. And when one of them disappears, it's all the sadder, as it was this week with the untimely death of Peter Weiss, the political columnist for the Jersey Journal in Hudson County. He passed away on September 6 at 60 after having had heart surgery a few weeks ago.

Weiss practiced a style of journalism rarely seen anymore anywhere, never mind New Jersey. He practiced it for more than three decades at a newspaper that itself is a throwback to when a reporter and a paper wove themselves into the fabric of a community's everyday life.

Weiss was the paper's long-time political columnist. In Hudson County, that's like being the sheriff of Dodge City.

The Jersey Journal never abandoned the city where it grew up, Jersey City. Its offices are located right off Journal Square in a building as gritty as its coverage.

Unlike the newsrooms of papers that migrated to the suburbs, the Journal's newsroom would never be mistaken for the insurance claims offices that most now resemble. Weiss once told me that computers were accepted into the newsroom years after they arrived at other papers, and even then they were taken in grumpily, "like sus_picious boarders."

But the newsroom camaraderie was high, intense, and it was due largely to Weiss, whom I first got to know when we were cub reporters starting our careers on competing papers in Hudson County.

Weiss' Political Whirl column made him Hudson County's cop on the beat in a rough political neighborhood. You could almost envision him twirling the nightstick as he passed under the streetlight.

How tough was the beat? One of my predecessors on the now-deservedly defunct newspaper I worked for, walked the political beat like Weiss but not the same way.

This guy would ask politicians to pay him for a mention in his column, and the price was higher if they wanted their opponents maligned. He actually handed out a printed price list that I kept for many years. It went something like:

"Favorable Mention - $10"
"Unfavorable Mention of Opponent - $20."

Former Gov. Brendan Byrne once said that Hudson County was the only place on the planet where life after death can be proven - the dead are still voting, aren't they?

In those years, a beginning reporter like Weiss had to keep his eyes on the politicians in front of him and on the unscrupulous competitors behind him. The style of Weiss and the Journal was, and is, the personification of local news - make that really local news. The headline on the story next to his page-one obituary was "3 Firefighters Are Bitten by Insects."

Most reporters these days see changing beats as necessary to "advance" their careers. So too many reporters hardly invest the time and attention needed to know the communities they are assigned to cover. Readers are left to suffer through too many he said/she said stories that are bereft of local flavor, perspective and even interest.

Weiss stayed put, centered and honest. He was focused on politics and a Hudson County community that knew it. That community also knew where he was coming from and where to find him. And that was, invariably, in jeans and a T-shirt, at almost any time, in the newsroom. He kept a tie in his desk drawer, or so he said, though many were left to wonder how he would ever fasten it around a collarless shirt.

In the couple of years that we competitors, it seemed that we were always covering indictments, trials and elections - a world of harsh verdicts. Weiss gave these stories his snap, professional judgments, but I never once saw him succumb to harsh judgments against the persons involved. He had a pen of steel but a heart of gold.

Weiss was nobody's fool, either. Thirty or more years on the beat helps you there.

When politicians tried to spin him, he always listened, which, often to
their lament, didn't signal agreement, as his column would later reveal.

Weiss' most animated response to any outrageous political spin would be a trademark squeaky, almost frumpy, cackle, an indiscretion he would quickly try to hide behind his hand. Maybe a roll of his eyes would follow.

Readers knew they were getting Weiss' truthful best in every column, even with the journalists' term "objectivity" under assault as of late.

After I left the county for other journalism assignments, we became such good friends that he was the best man at my wedding years later.

And out of friendship and professional gratitude for making me a better journalist, I continually sent job offers his way.

When I complained once that Weiss either threw the offers away or gave them to younger reporters he mentored, a mutual friend said that while Weiss might entertain leaving the newspaper, he would never think about leaving its readers.

He loved them, and they loved him.

When an editor at the paper called me at my home for comments on his life for the obit, I said that surely there were big-name politicians and officials who would be lining up to get quoted. I wouldn't be needed.

The editor confided that he had indeed spoken to a long line of those people before me, but nobody could finish a sentence without crying - the last one being Rep. Robert Menendez, one of the most frequent targets of Weiss' columns.

James McQueeny, a former Star-Ledger Washington bureau chief and political analyst for News12 New Jersey, is the head of Winning Strategies, a communications company based in New Jersey and Washington, D.C.

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: A pen of steel and a heart of gold

: By JAMES McQUEENY

:
: New Jersey is a place where media treasures can be hard to find. And when one of them disappears, it's all the sadder, as it was this week with the untimely death of Peter Weiss, the political columnist for the Jersey Journal in Hudson County. He passed away on September 6 at 60 after having had heart surgery a few weeks ago.

: Weiss practiced a style of journalism rarely seen anymore anywhere, never mind New Jersey. He practiced it for more than three decades at a newspaper that itself is a throwback to when a reporter and a paper wove themselves into the fabric of a community's everyday life.

: Weiss was the paper's long-time political columnist. In Hudson County, that's like being the sheriff of Dodge City.

: The Jersey Journal never abandoned the city where it grew up, Jersey City. Its offices are located right off Journal Square in a building as gritty as its coverage.

: Unlike the newsrooms of papers that migrated to the suburbs, the Journal's newsroom would never be mistaken for the insurance claims offices that most now resemble. Weiss once told me that computers were accepted into the newsroom years after they arrived at other papers, and even then they were taken in grumpily, "like sus_picious boarders."

: But the newsroom camaraderie was high, intense, and it was due largely to Weiss, whom I first got to know when we were cub reporters starting our careers on competing papers in Hudson County.

: Weiss' Political Whirl column made him Hudson County's cop on the beat in a rough political neighborhood. You could almost envision him twirling the nightstick as he passed under the streetlight.

: How tough was the beat? One of my predecessors on the now-deservedly defunct newspaper I worked for, walked the political beat like Weiss but not the same way.

: This guy would ask politicians to pay him for a mention in his column, and the price was higher if they wanted their opponents maligned. He actually handed out a printed price list that I kept for many years. It went something like:

: "Favorable Mention - $10"
: "Unfavorable Mention of Opponent - $20."

: Former Gov. Brendan Byrne once said that Hudson County was the only place on the planet where life after death can be proven - the dead are still voting, aren't they?

: In those years, a beginning reporter like Weiss had to keep his eyes on the politicians in front of him and on the unscrupulous competitors behind him. The style of Weiss and the Journal was, and is, the personification of local news - make that really local news. The headline on the story next to his page-one obituary was "3 Firefighters Are Bitten by Insects."

: Most reporters these days see changing beats as necessary to "advance" their careers. So too many reporters hardly invest the time and attention needed to know the communities they are assigned to cover. Readers are left to suffer through too many he said/she said stories that are bereft of local flavor, perspective and even interest.

: Weiss stayed put, centered and honest. He was focused on politics and a Hudson County community that knew it. That community also knew where he was coming from and where to find him. And that was, invariably, in jeans and a T-shirt, at almost any time, in the newsroom. He kept a tie in his desk drawer, or so he said, though many were left to wonder how he would ever fasten it around a collarless shirt.

: In the couple of years that we competitors, it seemed that we were always covering indictments, trials and elections - a world of harsh verdicts. Weiss gave these stories his snap, professional judgments, but I never once saw him succumb to harsh judgments against the persons involved. He had a pen of steel but a heart of gold.

: Weiss was nobody's fool, either. Thirty or more years on the beat helps you there.

: When politicians tried to spin him, he always listened, which, often to
: their lament, didn't signal agreement, as his column would later reveal.

: Weiss' most animated response to any outrageous political spin would be a trademark squeaky, almost frumpy, cackle, an indiscretion he would quickly try to hide behind his hand. Maybe a roll of his eyes would follow.

: Readers knew they were getting Weiss' truthful best in every column, even with the journalists' term "objectivity" under assault as of late.

: After I left the county for other journalism assignments, we became such good friends that he was the best man at my wedding years later.

: And out of friendship and professional gratitude for making me a better journalist, I continually sent job offers his way.

: When I complained once that Weiss either threw the offers away or gave them to younger reporters he mentored, a mutual friend said that while Weiss might entertain leaving the newspaper, he would never think about leaving its readers.

: He loved them, and they loved him.

: When an editor at the paper called me at my home for comments on his life for the obit, I said that surely there were big-name politicians and officials who would be lining up to get quoted. I wouldn't be needed.

: The editor confided that he had indeed spoken to a long line of those people before me, but nobody could finish a sentence without crying - the last one being Rep. Robert Menendez, one of the most frequent targets of Weiss' columns.

: James McQueeny, a former Star-Ledger Washington bureau chief and political analyst for News12 New Jersey, is the head of Winning Strategies, a communications company based in New Jersey and Washington, D.C.

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