In Paul Pringle’s new nonfiction thriller Bad City: Peril and Power in the City of Angels, he takes readers behind the scenes of his Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation into one of Los Angeles’ biggest scandals. It all began with a drug overdose at one of the city’s hotels, which was seemingly connected to Dr. Carmen Puliafito, who ran USC’s medical school, making him one of the city’s more prominent academic figures (and a regular on the glitzy fundraising circuit, often seen rubbing elbows with celebrities and Hollywood executives). Pringle eventually discovered that the victim, Sarah Warren, was one of several young people with whom the doctor was using (and supplying) recreational drugs — the resulting exposés in the Los Angeles Times sent shockwaves through the city, and were the first of many USC-adjacent scandals he would help uncover (including the now-infamous admissions scandal known as Operation Varsity Blues).

His book details the breathtaking twists involved in reporting out these many stories, but also lays bare the cover-ups and scandals present at his own newspaper (under the management of former publisher Davan Maharaj and managing editor Marc Duvoisin, not unlike the NBC News debacle that Ronan Farrow revealed in his book Catch and Kill. Here, in an exclusive excerpt, Pringle details some of the nefarious behavior he was met with as he attempted to publish his very first article on the topic.

A blockbuster.

That’s what the Puliafito story had become...

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