Neil Barsky

Neil Barsky is an American journalist, former hedge fund manager and filmmaker. He is known for directing the 2012 film Koch. He is also the co-founder of The Marshall Project, a journalism nonprofit intended to shed light on the United States criminal justice system. The organisation won two Pulitzer prizes in the 7 years while Barsky was chair.

Early life and education Barsky pursued his undergraduate studies at Oberlin College and obtained a graduate degree in journalism at the Columbia Journalism School. Barsky is Jewish and attributes his support for social justice to his Jewish schooling and upbringing.

Career

Early career Barsky's interest in journalism was sparked by a high school project on the effect of busing legislation on communities in Boston.

Return to journalism In 2009, Barsky returned to journalism. As chairman of the board of overseers of the Columbia Journalism Review, he encouraged the organization to play an important role in coming up with new business models. He similarly pushed the nonprofit Youth Communications to think about what projects would financially sustain the organization. the project got Keller on board in February 2014. Former New York Times executive editor Bill Keller announced that he was joining the project as head of the editorial team. The project had two of its investigative journalism pieces published in Slate and the Washington Post respectively, and it launched in November 2014 with funding from Barsky and many other sources, including the Ford Foundation.

The organisation received two Pulitzer prizes while Barsky was at its helm. Barsky stepped down as chairman in late 2021. Barsky was co-executive producer and director of the documentary Knuckleball!, the short documentary Witnesses NYC, and the Koch episode in the TV series documentary POV.

Journalistic focus

Donald Trump Barsky has reported extensively on the business career of 45th President Donald Trump since 1985, mainly for The Wall Street Journal and The Daily News. He has interviewed Trump dozens of times over the course of his journalistic coverage.

Trump threatened to sue Barsky multiple times over the course of his journalistic coverage, though he never followed through.

Rikers Island Following numerous revelations about stark conditions in the New York City jail complex, Barsky wrote an opinion piece for the New York Times titled "Shut Down Rikers Island" (July 19, 2015). In the piece, Barsky argued that: "the only way to transform Rikers is to destroy it; it needs to be permanently closed. The buildings are crumbling. The guard culture of prisoner abuse and the gang culture of violence are ingrained. The complex is New York's Guantánamo Bay: a secluded island, beyond the gaze of watchdogs, where the Constitution is no guide. It is a place that has outlived its usefulness." Previously, in February 2016, de Blasio had called the idea of shutting down Rikers Island a "noble concept," but described it as unrealistic due to the cost.