[7] He drew protests from within his own newsroom for what some described as "blatant political interference," such as ordering a professor's comments be removed from a story because they were too "left-wing.
[13] In 2003, he was called to justify overseeing the publication of the identity and personal details of Chicago Cubs fan Steve Bartman after a foul-up at a playoffs game lost the baseball team its chance at a championship win.
[14] Under his direction, the paper "leaned increasingly on traditional tabloid newspaper staples: aggressive city reporting, heavy doses of sports and celebrities, and lots of pictures of scantily clad women", while still publishing its "important exposés".
[16][17] Cooke joined the New York Daily News in February 2005 to fill the vacancy left by Ed Kosner who had retired more than a year earlier.
[19][20] He described the paper's on-going rivalry with the New York Post stating "We put our foot on their throat every day and press down till their eyes bulge and leak blood, but still they won't die.
[21] This came after the Post had referred to him as "the Cookie Monster for the News"[22] However, after ten months he began to clash with Editorial Director Martin Dunn whom he described as "controlling", and eventually left the paper in 2005.
[25] He remained with the Sun-Times through 2009, and explained his belief in tabloid pagination stating that a front page requires two of the following: Power of presentation; humor; emotion; and attitude.