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Title details for Bad City by Paul Pringle - Available

Bad City

Peril and Power in the City of Angels

by Paul Pringle
Robert Petkoff
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
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1 of 1 copy available

For fans of Spotlight and Catch and Kill comes a nonfiction thriller about corruption and betrayal radiating across Los Angeles from one of the region's most powerful institutions, a riveting tale from a Pulitzer-prize winning journalist who investigated the shocking events and helped bring justice in the face of formidable odds.
On a cool, overcast afternoon in April 2016, a salacious tip arrived at the L.A. Times that reporter Paul Pringle thought should have taken, at most, a few weeks to check out: a drug overdose at a fancy hotel involving one of the University of Southern California's shiniest stars—Dr. Carmen Puliafito, the head of the prestigious medical school. Pringle, who'd long done battle with USC and its almost impenetrable culture of silence, knew reporting the story wouldn't be a walk in the park. USC is the largest private employer in the city of L.A., and it casts a long shadow.
But what he couldn't have foreseen was that this tip would lead to the unveiling of not one major scandal at USC but two, wrapped in a web of crimes and cover-ups. The rot rooted out by Pringle and his colleagues at The Times would creep closer to home than they could have imagined—spilling into their own newsroom.
Packed with details never before disclosed, Pringle goes behind the scenes to reveal how he and his fellow reporters triumphed over the city's debased institutions, in a narrative that reads like L.A. noir. This is L.A. at its darkest and investigative journalism at its brightest.
A Macmillan Audio production from Celadon Books.
"Robert Petkoff is especially effective at narrating this account..."- AudioFile Magazine (Earphones Award Winner)

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    July 19, 2022

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781250856586
      • File size: 282418 KB
      • Duration: 09:48:22

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      July 25, 2022
      Los Angeles Times reporter Pringle debuts with an in-depth and often riveting account of sexual misconduct, drug abuse, corruption, and cover-ups in Southern California. Expanding on a story he broke in 2017, Pringle recounts how a Pasadena hotel manager’s dogged efforts to get someone to investigate what happened to a young woman who overdosed on crystal meth in the hotel room of Dr. Carmen Puliafito, the dean of the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine, led to Puliafito’s resignation and the uncovering of decades of sexual abuse committed by George Tyndall, a gynecologist in USC’s student health clinic. Throughout, Pringle draws detailed and sympathetic portraits of the victims in both cases, including Sarah Warren, the woman who overdosed in Puliafito’s hotel room after meeting him through the website Backpage.com and becoming his “round-the-clock sugar baby,” and recounts in meticulous detail USC’s efforts to cover up the crimes. Part of these efforts included pressuring the leadership of the Los Angeles Times to kill the Puliafito story, and Pringle doesn’t hold back in criticizing how the newspaper’s executives allowed themselves to be compromised by moneyed interests in Southern California. It’s a crisp tale of institutional rot, dogged journalism, and heroic whistleblowing. Readers will be on the edge of their seats.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Robert Petkoff is especially effective at narrating this account in which the author's judgments heavily dominate the narrative. L.A. TIMES reporter Pringle's painstaking multi-year investigation, starting in 2016, pitted him against the prestigious University of Southern California and his own editors, who did not want to run afoul of the city's most influential advertiser--or its friends. The news story involved the married dean of USC's Keck School of Medicine, his drug habit, and his drug-addicted 22-year-old girlfriend, whom he repeatedly sprung from rehab. Pringle's no-holds-barred journalism is dramatic listening, and Petkoff keeps a brisk pace, maintaining suspense and narrative tension even through passages that are repetitive. Petkoff takes on the author's gripes and ruminations, along with his passion, indignation, and abiding sense of justice--for a true-crime story as compelling as any novel. D.A.W. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine
    • Library Journal

      June 10, 2024

      In April 2016, L.A. Times investigative reporter Pringle received a tip about an overdose at an upscale Pasadena hotel. This tip set off a chain of events that rattled the upper echelons of leadership at the University of Southern California and at the Times itself. Pringle found that Carmen Puliafito, dean of the USC medical school, was providing drugs to a troubled young woman in exchange for sex. Stonewalled by USC leadership, Pringle doggedly pursued the story, much to the chagrin of his employers, who seemed beholden to the wealthy and powerful, rather than to the truth. But the Puliafito story is merely the tip of the USC iceberg; Pringle and his colleagues also break the story of a sexually abusive gynecologist who worked and preyed on young women at the USC student health center for decades. Robert Petkoff's skilled narration is straightforward and engaging, with frequent inflections suggesting incredulity and disgust at both the appalling behaviors of the men being investigated and Pringle's editors at the paper. VERDICT This inside look at investigative reporting at a major U.S. newspaper will appeal to listeners with an interest in journalism, as well as fans of true crime podcasts that focus on criminal investigations.--Nanette Donohue

      Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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