Paper of Wreckage

Starred review from October 14, 2024
Five decades worth of raucous behind-the-scenes anecdotes, from the creation of the notorious headline “Headless Body in Topless Bar” to the genesis of the popular gossip column Page Six, fill this scintillating oral history of the New York Post. Former Post contributors Mulcahy (My Lips Are Sealed) and DiGiacomo tap hundreds of former and current staffers, plus a zany selection of readers and subjects (filmmaker John Waters; a “onetime Gambino crime family hitman”), to tell the story of how the staid liberal paper changed after its 1976 purchase by Rupert Murdoch—a transition that was “like Sid Vicious taking over the Philharmonic.” Much of the book consists of tales of hardboiled, misfit journalists—“rogues, reprobates, freaks”—willing to do anything for a story, like pose as a grief counselor to nail an interview with the mother of a Son of Sam victim. The paper’s office hijinks are no less sordid; they include photographers snorting “coke off the light tables,” an editor who wore “red devil horns” while “spanking and terrorizing the copygirls,” and numerous fistfights. Though reveling in the sensationalism of such Mad Men–esque, pre-#MeToo behavior, the book is not uncritical; the authors are clear-eyed about the Post’s damaging “negative coverage of the Black community” and the credence it gave to unreliable sources, including Trump mentor Roy Cohn. It’s a juicy, gonzo slice of New York history.