Wayne Barrett, Fierce Muckraker at The Village Voice, Dies at 71

[Fast Walker 52]

Source: NYTimes

Wayne Barrett, the muckraking Village Voice columnist who carved out a four-decade career taking on developers, landlords and politicians, among them Donald J. Trump and Rudolph W. Giuliani, died on Thursday in Manhattan. He was 71. His wife, Fran Barrett, said the cause was complications of lung cancer and interstitial lung disease. A self-proclaimed country boy from Virginia and a lapsed seminarian, Mr. Barrett spent 37 years at The Voice, the alternative newsweekly based in Greenwich Village.

There he exposed the misdeeds that ensnared appointees and supporters of Mayor Edward I. Koch a trail of serial corruption that he recapitulated in 1988 in City for Sale: Ed Koch and the Betrayal of New York, a much-praised book written with his mentor and fellow Voice mainstay Jack Newfield.
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A 1992 book, Trump: The Deals and the Downfall, was, as Mr. Barrett acknowledged, a flop at first. Thanks to his subjects improbable political ascent 25 years later, it was successfully republished and expanded in 2016 as Trump: The Greatest Show on Earth: The Deals, the Downfall, the Reinvention.

Mr. Barretts voluminous background files from the Trump biography, and his professional courtesy, made his Brooklyn home a mecca for investigative reporters during the recent presidential campaign.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/19/business/media/wayne-barrett-dead-village-voice-columnist.html?_r=0

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freaking insane... what is going on? Such irony. I guess he couldn't stomach Trump as POTUS.

[George II]

1. Died of a broken heart.

[Fast Walker 52]

2. probably, yes

[kimbutgar]

3. He had been suffering from cancer for some time

So this was no surprise.

[Chrisdutch]

4. Wayne's world

A real shame. The guy was a terrific writer and one of the few today in the media that does the digging.

[no_hypocrisy]

5. Behind the Seventies-Era Deals That Made Donald Trump

http://www.villagevoice.com/news/behind-the-seventies-era-deals-that-made-donald-trump-7380534

[Fast Walker 52]

7. thanks-- yes

I heard on Democracy Now a few times recently talking about his research on Trump. He was great.

[bucolic_frolic]

6. Wayne Barrett discusses Donald J. Trump

[no_hypocrisy]

8. At 11:42

[SeattleVet]

9. Damn! I used to love his column in the Voice.

I wouldn't exactly call him 'muckraking', though; he did actual journalism, and wasn't cowed by money or perceived power.

[Mc Mike]

10. Great journalist, and good person.

He will be missed.