Wayne Barrett - Without Compromise: The Brave Journalism that First Exposed Donald Trump, Rudy Giuliani, and the American Epidemic of Corruption

The actors are pretty small and venal. Their ideas are small, never transcending profit. In it, however, are the men elected to lead us and those who buy them. And in it, unhappily, are the processes and decisions that shape our city and our lives.

Wayne Barrett article on Donald Trump published January 22, 1979

Get the list of looters. Particularly those whove pled.

Wayne Barrett notes on article about Sam Wright, 1978

W AYNE BARRETT didnt report a word on the Trump administration. He died the night before the 45th president took office. But as the many scandals of the Trump presidency began to unfold, Barretts foundational reporting on the New York City real estate developer was cited almost ritually, Barrett inevitably identified as legendary investigative reporter Wayne Barrett. His family, friends, and colleagues thought readers should have access to some of that reporting. This book is the result.

Barrett wrote in the Village Voice nearly every week for the better part of four decades, a steady accretion of knowledge silting up into hundreds of thousands of column inches. Collected here are just a few of those articles, accompanied by reflections from journalists who shared and continue his work. Ive tried to select pieces that in their totality illustrate something of his craft and tell stories worth remembering at this long distance. The articles republished here have, in a few cases, been very lightly edited to facilitate publication in book format. Some pieces have been edited for space. Portions that have been elided are marked with ***. Where an insertion has been made to enhance clarity, the added words are in {}. Inevitably, most of what Barrett wrote, indeed entire mayoral administrations, are left out. The pieces included reveal the antecedents that shaped our present and the methods of a dogged reporter whose stock in trade was never conjecture or polemic but a relentless deluge of fact. Wayne Barrett believed in facts.

He did not, Im fairly certain, believe in ghosts. His mind was clear and rational. But pulling together this volume plunged me into a New York crowded with ghosts of a different city, of a country we sold, of a robust journalism stacked now in microfilm drawers. I took on this project at the request of Fran Barrett, Waynes wife, because I wanted to make sure we didnt forget. I wanted to save something, the way you grab a photo from a burning building so you can remember what you had. Its not only about the past; memory is about the future, too, and what might yet be possible.

My research began with a visit to the vestigial offices of the Village Voice. The Voice, like so many American newspapers, died a few years ago. But a remnant remains, two men in an office that once housed a crowd of unruly journalists, working like medieval monks to preserve the knowledge the