0:04

As an investigative reporter, every

0:06

story for be your loss. If something

0:08

goes wrong, that's not just on you, It's

0:11

not just on the reporter. It can embarrass the paper.

0:15

That's Jack Leonard, Senior investigations

0:18

editor for the La Times. Jack

0:20

started at The Times as a reporter and his stories

0:22

of exposed fraud in the California

0:25

conservativeship system, abuse in LA's

0:27

jails, and corruption at the highest

0:29

levels of the La County Sheriff's Department. Jack

0:33

knows that whenever a newspaper decides to take

0:35

on powerful people institutions, there's

0:37

some risk involved.

0:39

You need a strong stomach for that kind of reporter,

0:41

and you need a strong stomach for that kind

0:43

of editing.

0:45

I've been working on the Puliafido story for a few

0:47

weeks. When I stopped by Jack's desk, I

0:50

told him how the dean of USC's medical school

0:52

had been at the scene of the overdose of a young woman

0:55

who tried to stop someone from calling paramedics,

0:57

fled to the nine to one to one dispatcher, and

1:00

then abruptly stepped down as dean, and

1:02

how the cops had done nothing and

1:04

no one at USC would talk. My

1:07

reporting was rock solid. It was

1:09

going to be a good piece, the kind of story

1:11

that would hold Puliafido USC and

1:14

the Pasadena police accountable. Jack

1:16

hears me out, and then he.

1:18

Says, what makes you think they could have published that?

1:20

He's talking about our editors, the two people at the

1:22

top of the mast hit at the La Times.

1:25

Is it possible that my own newspaper might

1:27

not have the stomach for this story? And

1:30

if not, why?

1:36

My name is Paul Pringle. I'm

1:38

an investigative reporter at the La Times.

1:41

And this is Fallen Angels, episode

1:47

three. Company Men. I'd

1:54

first heard about the incident at the Hotel Constance

1:57

in Pasadena from a whistleblower named Devon

1:59

Khan who worked at the hotel. Since

2:02

then, I've gotten the hold of police records, of nine

2:04

to one one recordings. They confirmed

2:06

what Devon told me. You could

2:08

hear the nine to one one dispatcher asked Pulliafido

2:11

about the woman's condition, even though she's

2:13

unconscious odeed on drugs.

2:15

Pulliffido lies would.

2:18

Take anythingales with it or just the alcohol, just

2:21

the alcohol.

2:23

The woman was rushed to the hospital.

2:25

The police found drugs in the room, but Pulliafido

2:28

wasn't arrested and the passing

2:30

the police didn't even file a report. So

2:33

Devon called the office of the USC president.

2:35

He told the staff everything he knew, but

2:38

when us he put out a press release, all

2:40

it said was that Pulliafido was stepping down

2:42

to quote pursue other opportunities.

2:45

So, yes, it's an important story, but

2:47

Jack seems to think the top two editors at the La

2:50

Times won't be in a hurry to publish it.

2:55

The printed paper is going to be something that it would

2:58

have more contexts and more analysis and

3:00

more perspective to survive.

3:02

The web would be a place where you can find immediacy

3:05

and breaking news.

3:08

That's Davon Maharaz, the editor in chief

3:10

of the La Times, where I work. He's

3:13

given an interview about the challenges of our business

3:15

to a leading Italian press organization.

3:18

Davon came to the La Times in nineteen eighty

3:20

nine as a summer intern, worked his way

3:22

up and became editor in chief in twenty

3:24

eleven. He and I got along when

3:27

he was managing editor. He'd fight for my stories.

3:29

I thought he was smart and a little edgy, but

3:32

since he became editor in chief, I felt

3:34

like Davon, had less of an appetite for investigative

3:37

reporting. Jack Leonard

3:39

says, I'm not alone in that.

3:41

There was a feeling that the stories weren't

3:44

just being vetted, some of them were being

3:46

slow walked. As an editor, I

3:48

think a lot of reporters want their stories

3:51

vetted, but they want them to also

3:53

get into the paper.

3:56

Matt Late, the editor I'm working with on the Pullia

3:58

Fido story, had found this out up the hard

4:00

way when he and his reporters investigated

4:03

Purdue Pharma, makers of oxy Contin,

4:05

the painkiller fuel in America's opioid

4:07

epidemic. It was an explosive

4:09

story, one that could save lives,

4:12

but it hit a wall once it got to Davon and

4:14

his managing editor, Mark Duvison.

4:16

There were delays.

4:17

After delays, it was difficult to get

4:19

engagement from the top leadership about

4:22

what they would want out of a draft

4:24

or a story. I felt there was

4:26

problems communicating that or articulating

4:29

why a story wasn't ready for publication.

4:32

It felt like there was a reluctance

4:34

to take on these topics.

4:41

Matt was working with two fine reporters, Scott

4:44

Glover and Lisa Garrion that he

4:46

brought in another standout on the staff, Harriet

4:48

Ryan, to help.

4:50

My editor at the time was Matt Lee.

4:52

He came to me and said, like, look, I need you gi

4:54

me a favor. These two

4:56

reporters have been working on this series

4:59

about oxycon and that they need a little help

5:01

and just structuring the narrative should

5:03

take like a couple months. All

5:06

the evidence was there, but they just tortured

5:08

these reporters waiting and

5:10

then waiting for feedback on drafts that they

5:13

clearly hadn't read. There was nothing

5:15

wrong with these stories. They were ready

5:17

to go in the paper. I still struggle

5:20

to understand why two of

5:22

our best reporters were treated with so

5:24

much disrespect, and I ended up taking

5:26

like years and both of them quit

5:28

in frustration at the

5:31

way things unfolded. By the end, it

5:33

was just me alone and Matt Lee trying to get these

5:35

stories done. My anxiety

5:37

was so severe that I had liked I

5:39

would at times lose feeling in my arms

5:42

from stress.

5:46

The series was finally published in

5:48

May of twenty sixteen, and it

5:51

led to a major federal investigation

5:53

into Purdue Pharma. It's

5:55

the kind of impact newspaper editors dream

5:57

about. So why had Davon been so

6:00

slow to publish and why did Jack

6:02

Leonard think my PULLI a feto story might

6:04

not even see the light of day.

6:14

There's an important detail about Davon Maharaj

6:17

and his job at the Only Times that I haven't

6:19

mentioned yet. He's not just the editor

6:21

in chief, he's also the publisher.

6:24

This is not typical, and there's a reason for that.

6:27

The editor in chief just needs to care about

6:29

journalism, good stories, accurate

6:31

reporting, impact like holding

6:33

pro due pharma to account. Publishers

6:36

have other things to worry about. Joe

6:40

Pompeii was a media correspondent for Vanity

6:42

Fair.

6:43

Typically, the publisher that means the business

6:45

side, and this is the person that is responsible

6:48

for the revenue, for the money

6:50

that the place is making and how it's going to make money.

6:52

And historically, in newspapers or news

6:54

organizations in general, there's a very

6:57

firm firewall between the business

6:59

side and the journalism

7:01

of the place. If you have a publisher

7:04

who is particularly engaged

7:06

in edutorial decisions that could

7:08

theoretically influence coverage or

7:11

how certain stories are told

7:13

based on not wanting to offend

7:16

advertisers or ruffel feathers.

7:20

So Devon, in his two sided job, has

7:23

to decide which stories are up to the Times journalistic

7:26

standards, and he also has to keep

7:28

the place afloat financially, and

7:30

in twenty sixteen, that's not easy.

7:33

The Times is a mess.

7:36

The Los Angeles Times was one of

7:38

the great national newspapers

7:41

of America for a large part of its

7:44

history. It was found even the late

7:46

eighteen hundreds, and for most of its

7:48

history was controlled by the same

7:50

family. This is the Chandlers of

7:53

Los Angeles, who was one of the great newspaper

7:56

dynasties of the twentieth century.

7:59

This is a paper that has robust bureaus

8:01

all over the place, a pretty significant

8:04

force in the journalism landscape. That

8:06

began to change in the

8:08

mid two thousands as the Los

8:10

Angeles Times and print media everywhere began

8:12

to really experience some of the pressures

8:15

that were coming to bear with the rise

8:17

of digital media. The

8:21

revenue models that print newspapers

8:23

had long relied on, which would have been print

8:25

based advertising, that became a

8:27

much trickier proposition. Newsrooms

8:30

have to start getting rid of reporters

8:32

and editors, and many newsrooms they have

8:34

a thousand journalists, suddenly they have

8:36

half that, and the La Times

8:39

certainly experienced a very very

8:41

sharp decrease in its manpower.

8:45

A lot of people would point to two thousand

8:47

and seven as the beginning

8:49

of the end for the La Times.

8:52

This is the year that Samzel, the billionaire

8:54

real estate investor.

8:56

Took over.

8:57

Samzel is the Chicago based billionaire

9:00

after you bought Tribune and the company that owned the Only

9:02

Times, he came in hard. You

9:04

can get a sense of Zell's leadership style from

9:06

this meeting in two thousand and eight, when

9:08

he dressed down a group of Tribune journalists who

9:11

were nervous about his takeover.

9:12

You're giving me the classic what

9:15

I would call journalistic arrogance

9:18

of deciding that puppies

9:20

don't comes.

9:21

What I'm interested in.

9:23

Is how can we generate

9:26

additional interest in our

9:28

product, in additional revenue,

9:31

so we can make our product better

9:33

and better.

9:37

Some might say that Zella is a realist. In

9:39

this new age of digital journalism, newspapers

9:42

need clicks because clicks are the new currency,

9:45

and this is a business. Puppies get

9:47

clicks. But as it turned out, puppies

9:50

weren't the answer either he.

9:52

Bought out the Tribune Company, took

9:54

it private, and in doing so

9:56

a trude a lot of debt. Within a

9:58

year under the reign of of Sam Zell's

10:01

Tribune Company, the company declared

10:03

bankruptcy. From there, you know, they've kind

10:05

of just had a succession of bad managers

10:08

and owners running the place.

10:11

Eventually it becomes this company

10:13

called Trunk. Tribune Company

10:15

becomes Trunk Trunk.

10:18

We're a long way from the Chandler family. Another

10:21

rich Chicagoan tech entrepreneur,

10:23

Michael Ferrell, was the biggest shareholder

10:25

in this new conglomerate. Like Zell,

10:28

he's also considered a disaster for

10:30

the La Times. This one reporter

10:32

I talked to when I was reporting on this turmoil

10:35

said to me, we just had an unbelievable

10:38

string of assholes running the place.

10:41

Harriet Ryan started at The Times in two thousand

10:43

and eight.

10:44

My first week at the paper, they

10:46

were a bunch of layoffs and the guy sitting across

10:49

from me got laid off and I had just been hired, and

10:51

like, I ended up going to his like it

10:54

was like a mass layoff. So there's sort of this like cake

10:56

and like juice thing, and it was like my first week.

10:58

On the job.

11:00

Years of digital disruption, bad management,

11:02

and budget cuts have taken a toll. By

11:04

the time I'm reporting to pull your fetal story

11:07

in twenty sixteen, two thirds

11:09

of the newsroom is gone. I'm juggling

11:11

three other investigations. Trunk

11:14

management has eliminated the publisher's job

11:16

and rolled it in with the editor in chief position.

11:19

They either don't appreciate the potential conflicts

11:21

that might create, or they don't care.

11:24

Editor Matt Leae could see that Davon and the

11:27

other top editors had their work cut out for them.

11:31

They were in a difficult position. They

11:33

had tough jobs.

11:34

They were dealing routinely with new

11:37

bosses, new ownership folks

11:39

that didn't really understand the industry. They were

11:41

dealing with the other problems that

11:44

the industry was facing, which was.

11:46

A lack of revenue.

11:48

I think they wanted to value investigative

11:51

reporting, they

11:54

actually created an

11:56

environment that made it very difficult

11:59

to produce them to gated reporting.

12:01

Reporter Harriet Ryan is more direct.

12:04

You know, we're not in the gold Nada journalism. I'm sure

12:06

they aren't under tons of pressure, but honestly,

12:09

I see it as a character issue a lack

12:11

of character, almost like just

12:14

pathological narcissism.

12:16

Davon Maharaj and Mark Duvison deny

12:19

that they did anything wrong in their handling

12:21

of the USC investigation, and they

12:23

maintained that any negative betrayal of their

12:25

actions is false. Matt

12:31

and I go over my draft to the Pullio Fido

12:33

story, and then he sends it to California editor

12:35

Shelby grad Shelby does an edit and

12:37

sends the story along to his boss, Mark

12:39

Duvson.

12:41

Mark is a very complicated character.

12:44

He's a very, very precise

12:46

editor. He really gets in the weeds editor

12:49

Jack Leonard. In fact, I worked

12:51

on a project that was more

12:53

than three years in the making, but for

12:55

Mark it would not have run.

12:56

But this was years ago.

12:57

This was back in two thousand and five.

13:01

Mark and I had joined the La Times around the same

13:03

time in two thousand and one.

13:05

He seemed like someone with a lot of ambition. That

13:08

got him the promotion to manage an editor second

13:10

in command of Davon. After

13:12

that, the problem with investigative stories

13:15

got much worse.

13:16

He seems to have got a little bit of gunshy. Since

13:19

then, as you move up, the responsibility

13:21

has become more. If something goes wrong with

13:23

a story, it's on you.

13:27

One of Mark's first edits is to delete

13:29

the line that calls the story at times

13:31

investigation. He tells me that

13:33

implies quote wrongdoing by USC.

13:36

I'm stunned. The story doesn't imply

13:38

anything. It's a factual report

13:40

of our investigation. Matt and I argue

13:43

with him about it, but he doesn't budge. Then

13:45

he spends weeks making cosmetic changes.

13:47

He tinkers and doddles, but he doesn't challenge

13:50

any of the reporting because it's solid. Still,

13:52

he's in no hurry to publish.

14:00

Mark says I should visit Puliafido, and

14:02

one of the Pasadena police officers at their

14:04

homes to get an interview. I

14:07

told him I've already tried that a few times.

14:09

One place I haven't tried door knocking. He's the

14:11

home of USC President Max Nikias.

14:14

In the case of someone like the president of USC,

14:17

it's quite possible that Paul's

14:19

messages so far have not got

14:21

to him. It's quite possible that the

14:24

pr people who are handling Paul's

14:26

questions have not told Max

14:28

Nikias about them. So as a reporter,

14:31

you fear that the person you're writing about

14:33

doesn't know what you're writing about. Taking

14:36

that one last step going out to the

14:38

home asking to talk to him,

14:41

that is very important.

14:43

If someone has a press office, of course you go through

14:45

the press office to try to talk to them, but then like when

14:47

they don't respond or if

14:49

they respond with the blase statement, that's

14:52

not the end of it for an investigative reporter. And

14:54

then you text them and you call them, then

14:56

you go.

14:56

To their house.

15:01

Mark absolutely does not want me

15:03

to doorknock Max Tikias.

15:05

I can't believe it. If anything, Mark

15:07

ought to be demanding.

15:08

I pay Nikias a visit Matt

15:11

late and I decide I'm going to Nikias's house

15:13

that weekend.

15:13

Anyway, he lets Mark know

15:16

what we're planning to do.

15:17

Someone tells me later that when Mark got the news,

15:19

he slammed his hand down on his desk and barked

15:22

no. He then fires off

15:24

an email saying I am not to visit the president's

15:26

home without first clearing it with him,

15:30

but.

15:30

I'm going no matter what.

15:38

San Marino was a talent of about twelve thousand

15:41

people on the border of Pasadena. It's

15:43

one of the wealthiest zip codes in the country. The

15:45

USC President's mansion, where Nikias lives

15:48

is worth about twenty five million dollars. I'm

15:51

hoping he's home and I can persuade him to speak

15:53

to me about Puliafido. But in case he

15:55

won't, I've written him a note asking for

15:57

an interview or even a confidential conversation

15:59

of out the incident at the hotel Continence.

16:04

I drive out there just after sunset in

16:06

the rain and park across from the gated driveway.

16:09

I press the intercom on the gate. No

16:12

answer.

16:13

I try again. This time

16:15

someone answers, but hangs up on

16:17

me when I identify myself. I'm

16:20

just about to leave when a car pulls up in the driveway.

16:23

It looks like a Mercedes. The Kias's

16:26

wife is driving and she's alone. I

16:28

introduced myself and hand her the note, which

16:30

he accepts silently, holding it like

16:32

it's a dirty napkin.

16:35

She drives on and the gate closes.

16:43

I'm not surprised that I don't hear from the Kias,

16:45

but I do hear from Matt Late that the USC

16:48

administration has complained to Davon about

16:50

my visit Jack Leonard.

16:53

The sources often complain about what

16:55

we do. But that's just standard journalism practices.

16:58

It's just basic journalism. To go out, I

17:00

think you can complain away. I recall

17:02

hearing from a couple of editors at the time

17:05

that Mark didn't want him to go out

17:07

and do a knock. He was unhappy when

17:09

he heard that he had.

17:11

But at that moment I couldn't care less because

17:14

after months of nitpicking and delays, the editors

17:16

say the story will run. The

17:20

Times is planning to publish the story as a multimedia

17:22

package with the police report and other records,

17:25

photos and.

17:25

A nine to one to one recordings. It's ironclad.

17:29

But then I get an email from Mark who says Davon

17:32

wants to sleep on it. I can't believe

17:34

it. Sleep on what The story is

17:36

ready to go. The next day,

17:38

Mark asked me to meet with him and Davon. Matt's

17:41

not invited, but I insisted he come too.

17:51

The editor's offices at the La Times have glass

17:54

walls that look out on the newsroom. We like to

17:56

call them the glass holes. Matt

17:58

and I sit across from days on a Mark and

18:00

after months of investigation and vetting and

18:03

editing, Davon tells us his decision.

18:06

We're not going to publish his story, he says,

18:09

and rather than offer any coherent reason,

18:11

he makes it personal.

18:13

I recall the paper's top editor bringing

18:16

up stuff that was totally

18:18

irrelevant, stuff about how

18:20

Paul was given time to recover from a knee

18:22

surgery, how he'd had other

18:24

time off to deal with other family issues.

18:27

It made no sense to me, like, why are we getting

18:29

into these issues. This meeting

18:32

should be about what a great story we have here

18:34

and how can we get this into the paper. I

18:36

understand that well meaning journalists

18:39

can differ over what is needed in order

18:41

to publish a story, but generally that

18:43

disagreement comes with a good discussion

18:45

of how to get it done. That wasn't

18:47

done here. We were given a dismissive response.

18:50

The papers top editor actually even suggested

18:53

other stories for Paul to pursue.

18:56

We were told that while he wasn't closing

18:58

the door to more report, the definite

19:01

message was he was not encouraging it. I

19:03

found that difficult to comprehend.

19:07

If you didn't think it was ready to be published,

19:09

work with us and tell us what's needed.

19:12

The response from the paper's.

19:14

Top leadership to that story was

19:17

stunning. And journalistically

19:19

disheartening. The tone

19:21

and tenor of that meeting was

19:23

that we were being discouraged from pursuing

19:26

a story of significant public interest,

19:28

a story that the managing editor and

19:30

the paper's lawyer not twenty four hours

19:33

earlier, had approved for publication.

19:36

I'm furious and I'm not quiet

19:38

about it.

19:42

I remember Paul calling me and telling

19:44

me that the story had been killed, and

19:47

I can still remember how angry he was about

19:49

it. I talked to Matt at the time,

19:51

too, and he was also very

19:54

upset about what happened.

19:56

I think back to the letter ni Kis's office

19:59

sent Davon. I went to the house in San

20:01

Marino, and I wonder what

20:03

did it say.

20:14

As you may know, President Nikias is traveling

20:16

out of town. He has posted from his trip

20:19

on his Instagram account. Last night,

20:21

Pringle, who follows doctor Nikias

20:23

on Instagram, showed up at the Nikias

20:26

residence after dark and asked missus Nikkeis

20:28

to deliver an envelope enclosed, unopened,

20:31

to her husband. When Doctor Nikias

20:33

called me last night to let me know what had happened,

20:36

I assured him I would deliver the envelope to

20:38

you and express our profound disappointment

20:40

in the situation. Needless

20:42

to say, Pringle has again crossed

20:44

the line. We understand he is doing

20:46

his job, but we also expect a degree

20:49

of respect and professionalism between

20:51

our organizations.

20:53

Thank you.

20:54

That's our producer.

20:55

Read the letter from Max Dakias's team to

20:57

Davon Maharaj, editor in chief

20:59

and published of The La Times. I

21:01

wrote to Mark demanding to see it, and

21:03

he handed it over. From the sound

21:05

of it, this isn't the first time USC brass

21:08

have complained to Davon about me. It

21:10

also seems clear that the Kisses people expect

21:13

to be treated in a certain way by

21:15

the editor and publisher of the La Times.

21:19

Welcome to the sixteenth annual

21:22

La Times Festival of Books,

21:25

and the very first one to be held

21:28

at the University of Southern

21:30

California.

21:33

I'm so proud that.

21:34

The nation's largest public

21:37

literary festival has found

21:39

a home at one of America's

21:41

leading private research

21:43

universities. The Los Angeles

21:46

Times Festival of Books is officially

21:48

open at USC.

22:00

Times.

22:00

Festival of Books is the largest book festival

22:02

in the United States. One hundred and fifty

22:04

thousand people attend every year. There's

22:07

lots of fanfare around it, as you hear from

22:09

that USC promo video. In

22:11

twenty ten, the year Nikia has got

22:14

the top job, the Times moved the festival

22:16

to USC from UCLA.

22:18

It was a coup for the new president.

22:21

The fact that we had this Festival

22:23

of books with them. It did raise

22:26

some questions in the newsroom as

22:28

to what our ties are, how close are

22:30

our ties with USC. As

22:32

a newspaper, you have to be independent. You've

22:35

got to be careful of these sort of links.

22:38

But the Festival of Books is just the most recent

22:40

of these sorts of links. For years,

22:43

USC's journalism school has been a comfortable

22:45

landing spot for editors and other staffers who

22:47

have left The Times. Matt Lay

22:49

teaches there, like a lot of reporters and editors

22:51

have over the years.

22:53

I know a number of folks in the newsroom

22:55

taught at USC, like myself. I was assigned

22:57

a class to teach investigator reporting,

23:00

and then if I taught that with another reporter.

23:02

And some of our best hires came from USC

23:05

too.

23:05

I went to USC, I went to their

23:07

grad school. I have a lot of love for USC

23:10

because I feel like it gave

23:12

me the skills to get

23:14

a job at the La Times.

23:18

But I do wonder, with all the trouble in the news

23:21

business, if Davon and Mark might have one eye on

23:23

their next act. I remember

23:25

talking to Mark about potential layoffs, and he'd

23:27

said that USC could be a good option for both

23:29

of us. Davon once praised

23:31

USC and the Key Is to me so passionately that

23:34

it made me think he'd fit right in there.

23:36

Paul was livid. I mean, he

23:39

was furious at what was going on, and he

23:41

believed that the paper was in the

23:43

bag for USC, and he

23:45

would talk a lot about the importance of actually

23:48

holding USC accountable

23:50

given its stature in the local

23:52

community. I was also hearing at the

23:54

time from Matt Lake a similar story.

23:57

I was in this, I guess, defiant

24:00

and kind of clung to the idea that Davon

24:02

said he wasn't closing the door to more reporting.

24:05

There were several ways I think that we could

24:07

go about it. One was getting

24:09

some information from USC

24:12

as to why the dean left the university.

24:14

We could get some additional information from Pasadena.

24:17

We could get information from the

24:19

woman who overdosed.

24:22

Even if Davon wasn't serious about reviving

24:24

a story with more reporting.

24:25

Matt decides, that's exactly what we're going to

24:27

do.

24:29

I recall going into my boss's

24:31

office, who was the Metro editor, Shelby

24:33

Grad, and explaining to him what had

24:35

happened. I talked to Shelby

24:38

about this, and he was encouraging of the

24:40

idea, and we decided to add

24:42

several more reporters to this effort.

24:45

We quietly hand pick a team.

24:48

I had worked most closely with Harriet Ryan.

24:51

I think she's perhaps one of the

24:53

best journalists in the country. She did

24:55

tremendous work on that pretty Pharma story,

24:58

and not only is she an incredible report

25:00

of that, she's just an incredibly gifted writer

25:03

as well.

25:03

I knew that Paul was a really quality reporter,

25:06

and I trusted Matt implicitly, so

25:08

like of.

25:09

Course, Next is Adam Elmark,

25:11

thirty two years old. He's been at the paper

25:13

for about eight months.

25:15

I was working for a nonprofit called

25:18

Voice of OC at the time.

25:20

We were focused really mainly on covering

25:22

local government. I was really focused

25:25

on accountability reporting. I'm

25:27

covering secrets at city halls.

25:29

I started to catch the La Times's attention because

25:32

I was just getting a lot of good investigative

25:35

accountability, sort of scoops. I

25:37

got hired in July of twenty sixteen, and

25:39

we started working on this story in

25:42

February of twenty seventeen.

25:47

Adam's desk is next to mine. We got

25:50

to know each other and I'd come to respect his reporting.

25:53

Our next two picks are young reporters, both

25:55

graduates of USC's master's program

25:57

in journalism. One is Matt Hamilton.

26:00

My first professor was an

26:02

La Times courts editor at the time,

26:05

Jack Leonard.

26:06

We really connected.

26:07

I got a job as an intern for the La

26:09

Times in twenty thirteen. When

26:12

a job opened up at the La Times, I applied.

26:15

I didn't know Matt that well, but I've been impressed

26:17

with his work on stories about the San Bernardino

26:19

terrorist attack, which had won The Times a Politzer

26:22

Prize. The final member of the

26:24

team is Sarah Parvini. Sarah had

26:26

worked with Matt on those San Bernardino stories.

26:29

There was definitely, at least for me

26:31

starting so young coming

26:33

to the La Times, that aspect of it

26:36

being a dream come true for a Southern

26:38

California native.

26:40

Matt and Sarah might be greener, but they're sourceful,

26:43

tenacious, good reporters.

26:46

I'm good at pun court records, I'm good at doing

26:48

interviews. I can write a solid

26:50

story, but I didn't have the

26:53

level of experience of Paul or

26:55

Harriet or Adam. Sarah

26:58

and I were a year part of USC,

27:00

so I think we were in the same boat, and

27:03

we had done similar internships before

27:05

arriving at the paper. It was like being

27:08

like going from TRIPAA.

27:09

To the major leagues.

27:11

We've just formed a secret reporting team

27:14

out of sight of the top editors of the La Times.

27:17

Me, my editor Matt Late, and four reporters,

27:19

all very different.

27:21

I remember being in the conference

27:23

room and that had sort of said

27:26

like, look, we're going to do this thing. I

27:28

was going to keep it on the down low.

27:30

It was a motley crew of people on this team,

27:32

you know, different ages, different genders,

27:35

different perspectives, different skill sets.

27:38

Together, we're going to find out the truth

27:40

about Puliafido and whatever USC

27:43

is trying to cover up, and we're

27:45

going to make sure the story gets out there no

27:47

matter what our bosses have told us.

27:52

Next time on Fallen Angels.

27:54

Why are we wanting to participate

27:57

in some sort of secret rebellion

27:59

that's going to the boat. This is

28:01

really what you want to be doing.

28:03

The secret reporting team uncovers unexpected

28:05

connections from an unlikely source.

28:08

I remember just.

28:08

Being shocked that Kyle Wood

28:10

evens with us.

28:12

He would make sort of ominous kind of remarks.

28:15

He would say, Carmen's evil, that

28:17

the guy is really bad

28:19

guy.

28:20

And we start to peel back the layers on who

28:22

Carmen Puliafido really is.

28:25

The medical school dean at usc was

28:27

leading a secret double life.

28:30

That's next time on Fallen Angels.

28:37

Fallen Angels, The Story of California

28:39

Corruption is a production of iHeart Podcasts

28:42

in partnership with Best Case Studios.

28:44

I'm Paul Pringle.

28:46

This show is based on my book Bad City,

28:48

Peril and Power in the City of Angels. Fallen

28:51

Angels was written by Isabel Evans,

28:54

Adam Pinks, and Brent Katz. Isabel

28:57

Evans is our producer Brent Katz

28:59

his co producer. Associate

29:01

producers are Hannah Leebowitz Lockhart

29:03

and On Pajo Locke. Executive

29:06

producers are me, Paul Pringle, Joe

29:08

Piccarello, and Adam Pinkus for Best Case

29:10

Studios.

29:11

Original music is by James Newberry.

29:14

This episode was edited by Daniel Turik

29:17

with assistants from Max Michael Miller.

29:19

Additional editings, sound design, and additional

29:22

music by Dean White.

29:23

Harriet Ryan, Matt.

29:25

Hamilton, Sarah Parvini, and Adam Olmaik

29:27

are consulting producers. Our

29:29

iHeart team is Ali Perry and Carl Ketel.

29:32

Follow and rate Fallen Angels wherever you

29:34

get your podcasts