Wayne Barrett's tribute to the late Jack Newfield, who died last week, is a must read for anyone who believes in advocacy journalism, writing or just plain citizenship:

Inspired by muckrakers like Lincoln Steffens, Jacob Riis, Michael Harrington, and I.F. Stone, he showcased in hard type the anger he prized as a professional prerequisite: "Compassion without anger can become merely sentiment or pity," he wrote. "Knowledge without anger can stagnate into mere cynicism and apathy. Anger improves lucidity, persistence, audacity, and memory."

Jack Newfield was angry without being shrill. He was hard, but he was fair. His work of lists - like "The Ten Worst Judges In New York" - took what would normally be considered opinion and built a common sense look at simply awful, awful people.

If the job of a newspaperman is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable, Jack Newfield did his job and then some.

He'll be missed.