Michael O'Keeffe

Growing up in Central Islip, I was hooked on newspapers and magazines: Crawdaddy and Rolling Stone for rock ‘n’ roll, the Village Voice for politics and the downtown scene. The New Yorker for in-depth investigations. The Daily News for sports.

Newsday was a big part of my daily media diet. It had two pages of comics, Ann Landers and Dear Abby. I gobbled up everything Steve Jacobson wrote about the Mets. TV critic Marvin Kitman’s column was smart, wonderfully sarcastic, usually dead-on. I was especially blown away by “The Heroin Trail,” Newsday’s sprawling series that traced the drug from the poppy fields of Turkey to Long Island’s streets, hospitals and morgues.

Growing up in Central Islip, I was hooked on newspapers and magazines.

I want to be a part of this, I remember thinking.

It took me a while to get here, but I’ve been at Newsday since 2017, after stops at The Daily News, the Rocky Mountain News and a bunch of other publications. It’s been a great ride. I chased stories across the U.S. and beyond. I’ve worked with brilliant reporters, editors and photographers. I got to meet and write about incredibly inspiring people – and a few truly despicable ones, as well.

I am proud to be part of Newsday’s outstanding coverage of the Gilgo Beach killings. I hope my reporting on the opioid crisis that has killed too many people has provided comfort to families struggling with addiction. I was happy to be part of the team that reported on the horrifying testimony in the trial of convicted murderer Michael Valva, the former NYPD officer whose 8-year-old son Thomas froze to death after spending a frigid night in a garage. The testimony left scars, but it also raised important questions about how we protect our children.

Long Island is lucky to have Newsday. Too many communities these days are news deserts. The newspapers that covered their local governments, arts scenes and sports teams are gone, or their staffs have been slashed to the bone. Newsday’s newsroom is thriving, with reporters, photographers, multimedia journalists and TV personalities on NewsdayTV covering news from Mineola to Montauk. We provide the news our audiences across many platforms need to make informed decisions on everything from dining out to elections.

My favorite movie about journalism is “Almost Famous.” Like the young reporter in “Almost Famous,” journalists spend a lot of time hanging out – waiting for judges to start hearings, for ballgames to start, for press conferences to begin. Thanks to the reporters and photographers who guzzled bad coffee with me as we shared jokes, gossip and insights. Thanks to the people who taught me how to do this job.

The guilty parties know who they are.