Looking past the obvious for the limelight

JIMMY BRESLIN had a problem in November 1963. A young reporter, he was in the middle of the biggest news story of his life — of anyone’s life — but he couldn’t get a handle on it.

When John F. Kennedy was shot in Dallas every newspaper reporter on the American continent was mobilised, but everyone was drawing from the same well. Breslin showed the nous that would eventually win him a Pulitzer Prize when he decided to look beyond the limelight.

It’s seductive, the lure of a big name and a loud story. You don’t have to look too far for it, either — there was plenty of that around this week, too.