Thank you so much to Celadon Books for the advanced copy of this book. These opinions are my own.
This is Paul Pringle's account of his investigation into the Dean of the USC Medical School for his involvement with a drug overdose and the subsequent reporting on George Tyndall, a gynecologist at USC. Pringle and his colleagues won a Pulitzer Prize for their reporting, but this book includes more detail and information than is already publicly available. For me, some of the biggest new information focused on the number of institutions involved in the cover-up, including the Los Angeles Times and multiple police departments.
I greatly appreciated the behind the scenes look at how the stories evolved. Getting to see the process of investigative reporting, the politics, and the motivations of various institutions and their representatives was powerful.
I was surprised (though I shouldn't have been) by how many of Pringle's choices were motivated by his desire to be the first news outlet to get the scoop. This book highlights the declining resources in newsrooms and how important journalism is. But it is also a story of power and corruption across so many levels.
There was more about the architecture and background of buildings than I needed or found interesting, but overall this book was extremely well written and organized. I read it in a single day.
This hit me personally as someone who used to live in the area and had ties to many of the institutions involved. I am so grateful for the work of ethical journalists who hold power to account for the public. I highly recommend this to everyone.
4.5 stars rounded up
This is Paul Pringle's account of his investigation into the Dean of the USC Medical School for his involvement with a drug overdose and the subsequent reporting on George Tyndall, a gynecologist at USC. Pringle and his colleagues won a Pulitzer Prize for their reporting, but this book includes more detail and information than is already publicly available. For me, some of the biggest new information focused on the number of institutions involved in the cover-up, including the Los Angeles Times and multiple police departments.
I greatly appreciated the behind the scenes look at how the stories evolved. Getting to see the process of investigative reporting, the politics, and the motivations of various institutions and their representatives was powerful.
I was surprised (though I shouldn't have been) by how many of Pringle's choices were motivated by his desire to be the first news outlet to get the scoop. This book highlights the declining resources in newsrooms and how important journalism is. But it is also a story of power and corruption across so many levels.
There was more about the architecture and background of buildings than I needed or found interesting, but overall this book was extremely well written and organized. I read it in a single day.
This hit me personally as someone who used to live in the area and had ties to many of the institutions involved. I am so grateful for the work of ethical journalists who hold power to account for the public. I highly recommend this to everyone.
4.5 stars rounded up