Mike McAlary

Mike McAlary (December 15, 1957 – December 25, 1998) was an American journalist and columnist who worked at the New York Daily News for 12 years, beginning with the police beat. He won a Pulitzer Prize in 1998 and died of colon cancer in the same year at the age of 41.

McAlary had been a sportswriter in Boston and with the New York Post, then became a reporter for New York Newsday in 1985 before leaving for the Daily News to become a columnist. He also wrote columns for the Post, jumping frequently between it and the "Daily News".

In 1988, McAlary wrote a non-fiction book, Buddy Boys, about corrupt police in New York's 77th Precinct, in the Brooklyn North patrol borough. He also had a hand in writing the script for the movie Cop Land, starring Sylvester Stallone and Robert De Niro. In The Paper directed by Ron Howard, a columnist named McDougal and played by Randy Quaid may have been based on McAlary, who had a cameo role in the filim.

In 1990, McAlary wrote a piece referring to a gang leader named Lefty. Four years later, he interviewed Lefty anew. By then the former gang leader was a decorated soldier, family man, and college student. He attributed his about-face to McAlary's 1990 article. McAlary ended his 1994 piece by writing, "I am humbled by his talent. Sure, as a columnist, you can get people indicted and even free the wrongly accused. That is what you do. But from now on, I know, at least once, I wrote a story that mattered." he was For the Daily News McAlary exposed the torture of Abner Louima, a Haitian immigrant, by New York City Police at a Brooklyn station in August 1997. Next year he won the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary citing his coverage of the story from August to October. He was also a finalist in the category Breaking News Reporting, re-classed as Commentary by the Board.

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