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

by Wayne Barrett, Eileen Markey (Editor)

A collection of groundbreaking investigations by Wayne Barrett, the intrepid, muckraking Village Voice journalist who exposed corruption in New York City and beyond.With piercing moral clarity and exacting rigor, Wayne Barrett tracked political corruption in the pages of the Village Voice fact by fact, document by document for 40 years. The first to report on the scams and crooked deals that fueled the rise of Donald Trump in 1979, Barrett went on to expose the shady dealings of small-time slum lords and powerful New York City politicians alike, from Ed Koch to Rudy Giuliani to Michael Bloomberg. Without Compromise is the first anthology of Barrett's investigative work, accompanied by essays from colleagues and those he trained. In an age of lies, fog, and propaganda, when the profession of journalism is degraded by the White House and the industry is under financial threat, Barrett reminds us that facts, when clearly accumulated, are our best defense of democracy. Featuring essays Joe ConasonKim Phillips-Fein Errol LouisGerson BorreroTom RobbinsTracie McMillanPeter NoelAdam FifieldJarrett MurphyAndrea BernsteinJennifer GonnermanMac Barrett

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction

386 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 29, 2020

About the author

Wayne Barrett was an American journalist. He worked as an investigative reporter and senior editor for The Village Voice for 37 years, and was known as a leading investigative journalist focused on power and politics in the United States. He is known as New York City's "foremost muckraker."
“Our credo must be the exposure of the plunderers, the steerers, the wirepullers, the bosses, the brokers, the campaign givers and takers,” Barrett once said to journalism students at his alma mater, Columbia University. “So I say: Stew, percolate, pester, track, burrow, besiege, confront, damage, level, care.”

Reviews

[Kammy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to the publisher for an advance copy of this book via netgalley!

This book describes the inquisitive nature of investigative journalism. Specifically that of Wayne Barrett. Interesting glimpse into his career, but also into Trump..way before recent events took place. good read to understand the hard work required of investigative journalism.

[madison · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'd first heard about Wayne Barrett from journalist Sarah Kendzior's work. I know very little about journalism, New York, or the Village Voice, but Kendzior's admiration of Wayne Barrett has stuck with me. So, when I saw this book was coming out, I decided to read it.

I knew that Wayne Barrett was the most knowledgable person in the country about Donald Trump when he was alive, so I was curious to see if the book might offer some insight into his rise and background. It did. Through reading Barrett's articles, it's wild to see how little the tactics of people like Trump and Giuliani have shifted over time, how long all these crooks have been allowed to get away with their behavior. Decades and decades. No accountability. It appears Barrett really tried to warn us.

This book chronicles some major stories of Barrett's long career as a journalist primarily for the Village Voice. As someone ignorant of New York City history and politics, and as someone born in the very, very late 1980s, some stories reprinted in the book were very difficult for me to follow. Names, places, and events held little to no meaning in my mind. I wasn't familiar with many of the major NYC public figures in the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s mentioned in the articles, and I'm familiar at all with the geography of any of the five New York City boroughs. I longed for annotated explanations to go along with some of the stories to explain why certain points were important or relevant. Again, I blame this on my ignorance and my age.

That said, there are many major figures in Barrett's articles that we all know. Trump. Giuliani. Bloomberg. The Cuomos. The mind blowing bit of it all is that Barrett has been documenting these corrupt, parasitic businessmen and politicians decades before their jaunts on the national stage or Presidential runs. Their sleaziness and their crimes have been out there for a long time, but never ultimately prevented their ongoing success, both financial and political.

Barrett's biting writing spares no punches. It's meticulously sourced and detailed - often to the point of losing me. His stories cover government corruption, police brutality, bribery, ethics violations from businessmen and politicians alike. The stories were a breath of fresh air compared to many of the tame pieces we read in 2020 about the same individuals Barrett had been mercilessly covering since the 70s or 80s. You can absolutely tell that Barrett's journalism was fighting on behalf of the people. I rarely get that same feeling from the major journalists we read today.

This is a great collection for those interested in an overview of Barrett's investigative reporting into US, specifically NYC, political corruption. I enjoyed the little memory snippets written my former Barrett colleagues and interns. If you are not interested in NYC politics, some articles may be difficult or boring to follow. Some portions really dragged for me for that reason.

For those who want to see how monsters like Trump have existed in plain sight for decades and have risen to the forefront of American politics, this provides some excellent and important reading material. I wish we had more American journalists as uncompromising as Wayne Barrett working today.

Thanks to #NetGalley and Bold Type Books for sharing a copy of this book with me in exchange for an honest review.

[Prooost Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a selection of Wayne Barrett columns from the Village Voice. Barrett was an investigative journalist who was very meticulous in his information-gathering, and who was keen to root out corruption in government and business in the city of New York.

It never mattered to me what the party or ideology was of the subject of an investigative piece; the reporting was as nonpartisan as the wrongdoing itself. I never looked past the wrist of any hand in the public till. It was the grabbing that bothered me, and there was no Democratic or Republican way to pick up the loot.

That about sums up the book. No mayor was immune, from Koch to Dinkins to Cuomo to Giuliani to Bloomberg.

The early essays in the book will probably seem a bit obscure, many of the names unknown to the general reader, but they do show Barrett's painstaking approach. Of most interest to the reader who wants the dirt on politicians on the scene today will be Part III: Prince of the City, which deals with Rudolph Giuliani. Barrett championed Giuliani during his time as a prosecutor, but once Rudy became Mayor, Barrett became bitterly disappointed in him.

[Marsha · Rating 2 out of 5]

Overall New York City corruption. Beginning of book unknown names, lots of detail & difficult to follow. Skipped some sections. Much more interesting starting with Part's 3,4,5 & 6 with known names: Rudy Giuliani, Mike Bloomberg & Trump.

[Mike Barnett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definitely needed to skim some of the details, but an incredible read. He was such an admirable person and writer.