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Here is a review of the speech.......

THE PRESS
S.F. Conference
Jimmy Breslin tweaks journalists
N.Y. columnist laments 'boring' writing, liquor-free lifestyles

Julian Guthrie, Chronicle Staff Writer
Sunday, June 2, 2002

Jimmy Breslin is full of it.

Charm and insight. Rants and irreverence.

The legendary 71-year-old Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist, speaking in San Francisco on Saturday, took aim at the FBI, the Catholic Church, President Bush and abstemious living. He even dared to say, speaking from experience, that not all grandparents like children.

And like an apostate in a room of believers, he said, "There's a lot of boring writing" out there these days. He was speaking to writers and editors.

More than 1,000 of the world's top snoops and scribes had gathered for an investigative reporting convention at the Hyatt Regency Hotel. They listened to riotous and rambling tales from the most ink-stained of all.

Breslin, with thick boomerang brows, tortoise shell glasses perched low on his nose and a raconteur's raspy voice, didn't disappoint. His body shuffles, but his mind races.

He writes three columns a week for Newsday and is out promoting yet another book, "The Short Sweet Dream of Eduardo Gutierrez." The book is about a Mexican immigrant who dreamed of building a respectable life in New York but met an ignominious death at a construction site. Pure Breslin, it's angry, opinionated, breezy and backed by solid reporting.

Breslin misses the days when newsrooms hummed with noise and nervous energy.

Today's newsrooms are too quiet, he said. No one smokes or drinks. It's all too boring, he said.

One of his mottoes is: "The test of a good idea is its ability to last through a hangover."

"Now you don't have saloons," he said. "We used to go there to talk about the stories, what was coming up. Now, people go to the health club after work. Even worse, they go straight home."

Breslin, an elegant and eloquent grumbler if ever there was one, was a copy boy, sportswriter and then columnist.

His stories, which span decades, could be grouped into themes. One of his most unforgettable pieces was on John F. Kennedy's funeral. Standing in a sea of reporters, knowing everyone was going to write the same story, Breslin left the pack. He wrote about a $3 an hour laborer who dug the president's grave.

Last week, Breslin witnessed another funeral, as New York said goodbye to the last girder to be taken away from ground zero.

True to style, Breslin refused to feign reverence he didn't feel. He was in New York on Sept. 11 and covered the attack, but considered the ceremonial goodbye to a beam to be bogus.

"Newspapers and television are making a living out of this (event)," he said. "I wish they'd give it up; it bothers me. The event happened on a Tuesday. The next Monday, everyone was back at work. It's bulls-- to say that it changed things forever."

He reserved his more pointed barbs for the FBI and President Bush.

"The FBI fell down on the job," Breslin said. "You can't make a case they didn't know."

Then, causing some to squirm in their seats or roll their eyes, he added, "Why didn't they bother? New York is a town with Jews, blacks, Puerto Ricans. Washington didn't care. I don't think George Bush knows what Brooklyn looks like."

Breslin, a lifetime Catholic who has pounced on the subject of pedophile priests, likened the church to the FBI. Both spend an inordinate amount of time and money covering up the truth, he said.

At the end of the session, he asked for questions. In a room filled with hundreds of journalists, not one of them spoke up. Only after considerable nudging did a few pose questions.

Breslin remarked, "We have free speech but everyone is afraid to use it."