Wayne Barrett
“The real problem for journalists is favor,” Wayne Barrett said in a student press conference at Brooklyn College last Thursday. “Editors want you to be a tough guy in the newsroom but they want you to be nice to the people so they can give you scoops.” He is talking about the people who journalists talk to get their information and essentially their stories, such as politicians and everyday people on the street. He adds, “You never know when the good story is going to get burned.”
“The worst journalism is a weather report,” Barrett said. “They have endless hours to talk about [a weather event]. They answer the questions who, what, when, and how but they never answer the question “Why?” Barrett tip toed about the point that climate change might not really be 20 years from now. He introduces the question of whether or not we are living in it now. “Are they not telling us?” Barrett asked the audience. He said that reporters have to ignore the data and are making a political statement that they are not saying what is really going on.
Barrett has been a prominent writer at the Village Voice for almost 40 years. He wrote five books, including two on Rudy Giuliani and one on Donald Trump.
“Trump is a business man whom the bank puts so much money into him that he can’t fail,” Barrett informs. When he wrote the book 20 years ago, Trump went bankrupt and he owned no more casinos. He wrote the book while Trump was in financial trouble.
“He had me arrested one time,” Barrett said. “I got arrested and was handcuffed to the wall night. I was Donald’s favorite reporter.”
Barrett also talked about the Independent Black Movement. This movement, which included Al Sharpton, took on the Brooklyn County Organization which was the most powerful county in the United States at the time. The movement ultimately took on corrupted black spokesmen. For a while, Sharpton was a FBI informant of the mob.
“Every county leader is going to jail,” Barrett said as the students laughed. He was referring to Vito Lopez, which is the county leader of Brooklyn. According to Barrett, he does not want to give any judgeship to Republicans.
Barrett makes a point the past is irrelevant to journalism today. “It is like we have no respect for the past and only can think in the present,” Barrett said. “To have history of Trump and history of Sharpton and to have them be so important now and not look at the past is intolerably bad journalism. Journalists today have less historical memory than the guy with the scissors back in the day.” He insinuates that we have all this technology but don’t use it in the most effective way.
Barrett expressed how Comcast and NBC merged and Sharpton is very involved in Comcast. He jokingly said that viewers will most likely see more of Sharpton on NBC. FCC approved the merge but one guy did not. His name was Commissioner Crops, according to Barrett. He spoke about investigative reporting and how it is “diminishing because of these conglomerates.”
“We are paid to tell the truth,” Barrett exclaimed. “We hang out with politicians who are paid not to tell the truth. They put a gloss on the truth. They are paid to avoid and dodge the truth.”
“The thrill of defaming truthfully got into my veins,” Barrett said on being an investigative journalist. “It’s a great life to have.”
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