Home » News & Events » Past Speakers » Wayne Barrett
"The opportunity to write something not for a funder, not a proposal, not an “outcome-driven” success story, not focused on the numbers, not a new formula for crunching the numbers: it was delicious. It felt like sanity. Like my mind returning to my mind."
Bridget Hughes (2007 - 2008)
Director of Youth Services
LGBT Community Center
Senior Editor; Associate Professor of Jounalism
Village Voice; Columbia University
Wayne Barrett has been a reporter at the Village Voice specializing in state and city politics for 26 years, and a senior editor for the last decade. His investigative reporting has uncovered the hijinks of a wide variety of major New York public officials including Mike Bloomberg, Andrew Cuomo, Mario Cuomo, Al D’Amato, David Dinkins, Geraldine Ferraro, Rudolph Giuliani, Harrison J. Goldin, Allen Hevesi, Ed Koch, Assembly Speaker Mel Miller, George Pataki, Charles Schumer, Rev. Al Sharpton, Eliot Spitzer, William Thompson and party patriarchs from Stanley Friedman and Meade Esposito to Clarence Norman and Roberto Ramirez. His latest book, RUDY: An Investigative Biography of Rudolph Giuliani, made major national news and was released as a made-for-TV motion picture starring James Woods. The book was part of a trilogy—including the critically acclaimed City for Sale, a chronicle of the Koch administration’s scandals, and Trump: The Deals and the Downfall—that covers the politics of New York in the final quarter of the 20th century. Barrett is currently under contract with Harper Collins to co-author a book about New York City’s pre-9-11 preparedness and post-9-11 response. The focus of Barrett’s recent investigative work includes the scandal-scarred top state police official close to Governor Pataki, the Indian gaming and dirty tricks politics of GOP operative Roger Stone, and the national machinations of Al Sharpton. In 1990 Barrett won the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism Alumni Award, and the News Analysis Award of the Silurian Society, an association of New York City journalists. Other awards include certificates of merit in 1994 and 1999 for Best News Reporting from the Society of Professional Journalists (NYC Chapter), and recognition from the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies in 1999 for Best Political Column/Commentary. Barrett lives with his wife Fran and son Mac in Brooklyn.
The information listed above was provided at the time of the speaker's visit and may no longer be current.
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