Bad City
Peril and Power in the City of Angels
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Narrated by:
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Robert Petkoff
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By:
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Paul Pringle
About this listen
2022 Amazon.com Best Books of the Year, Long-listed
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 unfolds 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)
©2022 Paul Pringle (P)2022 Macmillan AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Story
At first it seemed like a small story. The royal editor of the News of the World was caught listening to the voicemail messages of staff at Buckingham Palace. He and a private investigator were jailed, and the case was closed. But Nick Davies, special correspondent for the Guardian, knew it didn't add up. He began to investigate and ended up exposing a world of crime and cover-up, of fear and favor--the long shadow of Rupert Murdoch's media empire.
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Everyone should listen to this
- By RickN on 07-24-20
By: Nick Davies
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Kill the Messenger
- How the CIA's Crack-Cocaine Controversy Destroyed Journalist Gary Webb
- By: Nick Schou
- Narrated by: Richard Ferrone
- Length: 7 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Gary Webb is the former San Jose Mercury News reporter whose 1996 "Dark Alliance" series on the so-called CIA-crack cocaine connection created a firestorm of controversy and led to his resignation from the paper amid escalating attacks on his work by the mainstream media. Author and investigative journalist Nick Schou published numerous articles on the controversy and was the only reporter to significantly advance Webb's stories.
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Great!
- By Veronica on 09-29-16
By: Nick Schou
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Bombshell
- The Night Bobby Kennedy Killed Marilyn Monroe
- By: Mike Rothmiller, Douglas Thompson
- Narrated by: Mark Elstob
- Length: 11 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Drawing on secret police files, Marilyn Monroe's private diary, and never before published first-hand testimony, this book proves that Robert Kennedy was directly responsible for her death. It details the legendary star's tumultuous personal involvement with him and his brother, President John Kennedy, and how they sought to silence her. The new evidence and testimony is provided by Mike Rothmiller who, as a detective of the Organized Crime Intelligence Division of the LAPD, had direct access to hundreds of secret files on exactly what happened at Monroe's home on August 5, 1962.
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LA Confidential, Assassinations and Hollywood
- By grace on 12-29-22
By: Mike Rothmiller, and others
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Going Clear
- Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief
- By: Lawrence Wright
- Narrated by: Morton Sellers
- Length: 17 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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A clear-sighted revelation, a deep penetration into the world of Scientology by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Looming Tower, the now-classic study of al-Qaeda’s 9/11 attack. Based on more than two hundred personal interviews with current and former Scientologists—both famous and less well known—and years of archival research, Lawrence Wright uses his extraordinary investigative ability to uncover for us the inner workings of the Church of Scientology.
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Shockingly Great
- By Michael on 01-27-13
By: Lawrence Wright
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Clowns to the Left of Me, Jokers to the Right
- Opinionated Columns on American Life
- By: Michael Smerconish
- Narrated by: Michael Smerconish
- Length: 13 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Opinionated talk show host and columnist Michael Smerconish has been chronicling local, state, and national events for the Philadelphia Daily News and the Philadelphia Inquirer for more than 15 years. He has sounded off on topics as diverse as the hunt for Osama bin Laden and what the color of your Christmas lights says about you. In this collection of 100 of his most memorable columns, Smerconish reflects on American political life with his characteristic feistiness.
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All about Smerc and who cares about the victims
- By Mark J. Rosen on 12-10-20
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In Plain Sight
- The Startling Truth Behind the Elizabeth Smart Investigation
- By: Tom Smart, Lee Benson
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 14 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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This riveting inside story of the intense search for the Salt Lake City teenager who was kidnapped from her bed reveals never-before-told details of the largest investigation in Utah state history. Paced like a thriller, this true account moves between the parallel stories of the searchers and the abductor. Going beyond a mere eyewitness account, the book includes information culled from interviews with more than 150 people involved in the search and investigation, notes from family meetings, and memos from law enforcement officials.
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You are one strange man.
- By Dustin Izsa on 03-21-20
By: Tom Smart, and others
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Missing Man
- The American Spy Who Vanished in Iran
- By: Barry Meier
- Narrated by: Ray Porter
- Length: 8 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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In late 2013, Americans were shocked to learn that a former FBI agent turned private investigator who disappeared in Iran in 2007 was there on a mission for the CIA. The missing man, Robert Levinson, appeared in pictures dressed like a Guantánamo prisoner and pleaded in a video for help from the United States.
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Important story
- By Richard F. Callahan on 08-03-16
By: Barry Meier
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Class Action
- The Landmark Case That Changed Sexual Harassment Law
- By: Clara Bingham, Laura Leedy Gansler
- Narrated by: Gabrielle De Cuir
- Length: 15 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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When the local iron mine began hiring women in 1975, Lois Jenson, a single mother on welfare, didn't think twice about accepting the grueling but well-paid job. What she hadn't considered was that she was entering a male-dominated society that fiercely resisted the inclusion of women, a prejudice born out in the brutal harassment of every female miner.
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infuriating
- By Ron on 05-20-06
By: Clara Bingham, and others
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The Politician
- An Insider's Account of John Edwards's Pursuit of the Presidency and the Scandal that Brought Him Down
- By: Andrew Young
- Narrated by: Kevin Foley
- Length: 11 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Like a nonfiction version of All the King's Men, The Politician offers a truly disturbing, even shocking, perspective on the risks taken and tactics employed by a man determined to rule the most powerful nation on earth.
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Politician Phony. A must listen!!!
- By Sherman on 02-09-10
By: Andrew Young
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Paradise Falls
- The True Story of an Environmental Catastrophe
- By: Keith O'Brien
- Narrated by: Eileen Stevens
- Length: 13 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Lois Gibbs, Luella Kenny, and other mothers loved their neighborhood on the east side of Niagara Falls. It had an elementary school, a playground, and rows of affordable homes. In the spring of 1977, pungent odors began to seep into these little houses, and it didn’t take long for worried mothers to identify the curious scent. It was the sickly-sweet smell of chemicals.
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Incredible work of everyday people
- By J. C. Edens on 11-20-24
By: Keith O'Brien
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Case Closed
- Lee Harvey Oswald and the Assassination of JFK
- By: Gerald Posner
- Narrated by: Scott Aiello
- Length: 20 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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The assassination of John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963, continues to inspire interest ranging from well-meaning speculation to bizarre conspiracy theories and controversial filmmaking. But in this landmark audiobook, reissued with a new afterword for the 40th anniversary of the assassination, Gerald Posner examines all of the available evidence and reaches the only possible conclusion: Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone.
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Giving the truth - with some attitude
- By Amazon Customer on 06-13-15
By: Gerald Posner
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All the President's Men
- By: Bob Woodward, Carl Bernstein
- Narrated by: Richard Poe
- Length: 12 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Beginning with the story of a simple burglary at Democratic headquarters and then continuing with headline after headline, Bernstein and Woodward kept the tale of conspiracy and the trail of dirty tricks coming - delivering the stunning revelations and pieces in the Watergate puzzle that brought about Nixon's scandalous downfall. Their explosive reports won a Pulitzer Prize for The Washington Post and toppled the president. This is the book that changed America.
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THE FUMBLING OF AN ASSUAGED
- By Dudley H. Williams on 08-17-13
By: Bob Woodward, and others
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Red Notice
- A True Story of High Finance, Murder and One Man's Fight for Justice
- By: Bill Browder
- Narrated by: Adam Grupper
- Length: 14 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Red Notice is a searing expose of the wholesale whitewash by Russian authorities of Magnitsky's imprisonment and murder, slicing deep into the shadowy heart of the Kremlin to uncover its sordid truths.
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This is an absolute "YES" as your next read/listen
- By William on 02-07-15
By: Bill Browder
What listeners say about Bad City
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Revealing Glimpses into a City of Causal Corruption
This surprising 2022 memoir by a Los Angeles Times investigative journalist reveals many stunning stories of casual corruption, loose morals, and perverted priorities. Beginning with a bizarre tale of a hedonistic USC medical dean providing information to 911 emergency call center, this book slowly documents widespread abuse of power and the systematic protection of powerful people by indifferent university administrators, southern California police departments, and LA Times editors.
Is it hard to listen to this slow, careful documentation of influential institutions condoning awful, illegal behavior? Yes - especially when you live in LA. Too many professionals seem to have become very comfortable hiding crimes and putting financial interests first in this real life 21st century version of a 1940s film noir classic. Millionaires face few consequences for abusive actions and videotaped crimes while poorer, younger drug addicts spend time in jail.
The author won the Pulitzer Prize, helped rescue the local newspaper, and helped dislodge a power-obsessed university president to resign. Hundreds of sexually abused USC students also received over a billion dollars in damages. Yet a few prominent criminal suspects have also avoided even being questioned by police, let alone being charged or convicted. Is this justice? Readers may reach some depressing conclusions.
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- David
- 10-04-23
Relentless Reporting
Nothing satisfies like a good expose of wrongdoing by the powerful and arrogant. Paul Pringle’s report on a covered-up scandal at USC—and the efforts of his editors at the LA Times to suppress the story--makes for a remarkable, suspenseful read. Like “Catch and Kill,” Ronan Farrow’s book on Harvey Weinstein, and “Spotlight,” the movie about predator priests in the Boston area, Pringle must deal not only with pinning down the truth about a sex scandal but also persuading his editors to publish the story.
I found the book riveting, especially the first half. In the second half, Pringle and his colleagues pursue additional scandals, but none is quite so riveting as the first USC scandal—not even the one that resulted in a Pulitzer Prize for Pringle.
The narration by Robert Petkoff was excellent. He had the right tone of urgency or outrage as needed.
Overall, highly recommended!
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- Anonymous User
- 04-24-23
SO SO GOOD!!
This was one of my favorite audiobooks of the year. A fascinating and true story of coverup and scandal. Sometimes felt like a thriller - the characters are so crazy! Highly recommended
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- Sandra L Talarico
- 01-06-24
White Rich Men Go Down
A fantastic, intriguing story about the lengths that rich white men will go to to protect each other and themselves at the expense of others. Paul Pringle is a great storyteller and helps you to fully appreciate a determined group of ethical journalists.
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- KathrynVB
- 08-07-22
I wish I had read this in J School!
This book is about the thrill of the chase, the fight to expose corruption, and the determination of true journalists to break down pedestals of power that insulate the elite from accountability. I had tears in my eyes as the narrator brought this story to a close.
My only complaint was the author's decision to bring two extraneous stories into the book after completing his reports on the Puliafito scandal. Yes, they are worthy tales in and of themselves, but the digression pulls attention away from Pringle's incredible reporting that forms the main body of this book.
I graduated from J School in 1970, before computers and well before internet research. But the guts of old-fashioned reporting are here, and this story gives me hope that investigative journalism will always be with us.
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- Neale X. Trangucci
- 08-08-22
Wow! Loved it.
The book is extremely well written by Pulitzer Prize winning Paul Pringle. This is as a true “page turner” as I’ve ever read/listened to. I would have given this book all fives but was a bit disappointed in the final chapter.
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- Steve
- 11-05-22
riveting
a real page turner. well written, powerful and compelling story that affected usc for years
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- MPD
- 02-16-24
Wonderful
This is one of those stories where truth is stranger than fiction - amazing book anyone who enjoys intrigue should read!!
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- Brett Hansbery
- 02-23-24
Could not get any better than this
All around one of the best investigative pieces I’ve ever read/listened to. I’m stunned by the corporate cover ups by never surprised. Another ding against higher education w the greed and avarice shining through clearly. I don’t know what the solution is but somebody needs to provide independent unbiased oversight of every aspect of these schools especially the fundraising and the methodology. Disgusted by police resistance yet again to provide any honesty transparency or integrity. Nikias and Carmen should both be sharing a cell for years and years.
Nice job Paul!
Anything else you’d recommend as mandatory reading?
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- BMorgan
- 11-14-22
Really Enjoyed
Great story and will look for more like it. Strong performance as well. USC is woefully corrupt and yet supported by so many. Greed does terrible things, as this story highlights.
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1 person found this helpful