Wayne Barrett is everything one suspects that a model investigative reporter should be. He seeks the truth and will not stop until every bit of information is brought to the forefront, to the reader, purged from his research and brain. It is most evident in his publishes articles.
In the article that made the front page of the Village Voice about Governor Andrew Cuomo there are particular points where the reader is lost in a sea of information, history, names and statistics. Barrett proves he has done his research.
"Chris Del Giudice, the son of Mario Cuomo’s former secretary and Andrew’s current top policy adviser, Mike Del Giudice, recently joined Wilson Elser, the firm that always takes first place in the New York Public Interest Group’s annual revenue and campaign contribution rankings. So did Jerry Jennings, the son of Albany’s mayor, another reliable Cuomo ally. Wilson Elser, which hosted two receptions for Cuomo since 2008 and gave $68,856 to him, did an intimate fundraiser for him last fall in the ninth-floor conference room at its Albany office. Then Cuomo went to the Fort Orange Club, the gothic, wood-paneled, male-and-pale deal mausoleum, where he was introduced by the senior Jennings to an overflowing crowd of handlers and wirepullers."
Barrett has done his research. Unless you are an investigative reader it is easy to get lost in this article. However, Barrett does provide the facts the lead to his point that Cuomo needs to steer away from lobbyists, corporate interests and level with the people that he is supposed to represent.
Barrett at one point before pursuing journalism wanted to become a priest. He sought truth and this has not changed with his career to writing. He is a muckraker and will find the truth to provide for the people.
In fact, Barrett has rakes up so much information that he also writes novels on this. In one of his novels, book on the era of former Mayor Ed Koch, titled City for Sale., Barrett investigates the history of the Koch's administration and how they became criminals. He recounts payoffs and threes, secret deals -- he shines the light, and quite brightly, and this dark place in politics.
In the chapter that I read (chapter 11: An Era On Trial), I was actually most impressed by his style of writing. In his articles, where space on a newspaper page is tight and limited, information is really just vomited out on the pages. There is little space for details and a literary pull for the readers.
In the first paragraph this is the most evident describing New Haven as "the closing scene of a seedy urban drama that began in the urinal of a Manhattan restaurant" and the crowds during rush-hour as "secretaries and sales force who work in its shops and offices leave for homes in the outskirts, turning the center of town over to the students and faculty who can afford to live in it." His lengthy, detailed sentences bring a new, strong element to his writing -- he creates the setting of the trial as a narrative that pulls the reader into the dark, shocking place that hasn't been exposed yet. His work in novels really pull the reader into the story and I was most impressed by this work on the contrary to his articles, where the reader could easily get lost in the compact spew of information.
