As much as anyone but Rupert Murdoch, former Gov. Mario Cuomo saved the New York Post from extinction in the winter of 1993.
In that screwball season, The Post was controlled by two felonious buffoons — Steven Hoffenberg and Abe Hirschfeld, both of whom later went to federal prison.
Cuomo and The Post were not friends. We mercilessly trashed his policies, and he retaliated in kind. Yet, while the loons battled for control after former owner Peter Kalikow faltered, Cuomo proved himself an honorable man of rare magnanimity.
When Hoffenberg was delivering daily, zany newsroom tirades, Cuomo popped in and promised, “We are looking at alternative forms of investment . . . just in case Mr. Hoffenberg should change his mind” — prompting Hoffenberg to sputter in rage.
When Hirschfeld later seized control from Hoffenberg in Bankruptcy Court, the madman promptly fired half the staff. True to his word, Cuomo struggled to assemble a moguls’ “consortium” to rescue us. None took him up on it, but the effort gave us hope.
The Post’s March 16, 1993, edition carried the famous front page showing founder Alexander Hamilton shedding a tear.
In a visit that day to demoralized Post staff in a diner next door, Cuomo celebrated the paper, “It’s like the World Trade Center towers, if it goes down, that’s bad for all New York.”
Summoning his great oratorical power, he roared, “I like to think The Post is indestructible, and if it survives Abe Hirschfeld, it will be” — and the room went wild.
On March 19, our front page carried an open letter to the bankruptcy judge who wanted to be done with the case.
It read, “Does the law mandate that a madman must become the owner of the New York Post? . . . Judge Conrad, the people are watching what you do.”
Cuomo suggested those words to us. They got the judge’s attention — he delayed Hirschfeld’s takeover until Murdoch was ready to make his move.
News Corp still needed a Federal Communications Commission waiver to own The Post in the same city where it owned a TV station. Cuomo wrote to Rep. John Dingell, who oversaw the FCC: “I frequently disagree with The Post’s editorial stance . . . I anticipate that under . . . Rupert Murdoch, I will continue to find myself at odds . . . nevertheless I respect the value of a vigorous, independent journalism voice, and would join its other readers in bemoaning its passing.”
The FCC granted the waiver.
Maybe it would have happened anyway. But for legend’s sake, and for the heart he gave to us in our darkest hour, Mario Cuomo earned an unlikely hero’s place in The Post’s proud 213-year history.