Donald L. Barlett

Pulitzer-winning investigative journalist Don Barlett dies.

 Chestnut Hill resident and half of the legendary reporting duo ‘Barlett and Steele’ leaves a lasting impact on American journalism.

 Posted Thursday, October 17, 2024 12:00 am (Chestnut Hill Local)

by Len Lear and Donna Shaw

 Donald L. Barlett, a Chestnut Hill resident for 25 years and a much-honored investigative reporter, died Oct. 5 of age-related effects at his home. He was 88.

 Barlett teamed with fellow reporter James B. Steele for 26 years at The Philadelphia Inquirer and 42 years overall, forming arguably the finest duo in U.S. journalism history. 

 David Cay Johnston, a Pulitzer Prize-winning former New York Times reporter and past president of Investigative Reporters and Editors, said of Barlett and Steele after their second Pulitzer, "They are far and away the best investigative team of all time. There are lots of great investigative reporters, but nobody has their sustained track record."

 Barlett loved living in Chestnut Hill, often walking through the neighborhood and on the Avenue, chatting with people about his investigative journalism. One neighbor recalled long conversations about the loss of Pennsylvania manufacturing jobs that had moved overseas, a topic Barlett and Steele had warned about.

 The duo were "hard data" journalists long before the internet, poring over reams of printed numbers for months and years. Their work is cited in journalism textbooks nationwide.

 The Washington Journalism Review stated, "They were a better investigative reporting team than even Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein." In addition to their Pulitzer Prizes, Barlett and Steele won two National Magazine Awards, six George Polk Awards and numerous others.

 "Don was one of the greatest reporters America ever produced,” Steele told the Local last week. “Don was really a voice for the people. He believed deeply that every person should be treated equally, and he spent his working life following that maxim, exposing hypocritical politicians, corrupt leaders and shining a light into dark places. His thoroughness, sense of fairness and his commitment to the truth were his guiding principles. And he loved living on the Hill."

 Eileen Reynolds, Barlett's wife of 36 years whom he met at the Inquirer, said, "Don was a very modest man, a common man in the best sense of the word. He was very down-to-earth and modest in his accomplishments. Many people in and near Evergreen Avenue will remember the Fourth of July picnics we had every year. We might have 75 people there, but Don would make individual ice cream sundaes for every person, and each one had a choice of 12 toppings. Don so enjoyed Chestnut Hill."

 Barlett grew up in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, and attended Penn State University for a year. He left college to work as a general assignment reporter in Ohio, Indiana and Reading, then spent three years as a special agent with the U.S. Army Counter Intelligence Corps. He worked for several smaller newspapers before joining the Inquirer in 1970.

 Barlett and Steele's 1991 Inquirer series, "America: What Went Wrong?," was named by New York University's department of journalism as one of the best pieces of journalism of the 20th century. Rewritten as a book, it became a No. 1 New York Times bestseller. It is one of seven books Barlett and Steele published.

 The duo exposed how countless laws are passed by Congress that the general public knows nothing about. Many of these laws are passed by members of Congress who have received large campaign donations from lobbyists representing special interests that will benefit substantially. The average taxpayer is left to pick up the tab with no benefits.

 Typical quotes from Barlett and Steele include: "Our best-known and most successful companies pay more taxes to foreign governments than to our own." "Your tax status is affected more by how many lawyers and lobbyists you can afford than by your resources or needs." "Middle-income taxpayers pick up a growing share of the nation's tax bill while our most profitable corporations pay little or nothing."

 In a 2007 PBS documentary series, "Exposé: America's Investigative Reports," Barlett and Steele were asked how they managed to work so well together for so many years. Barlett said, "We're both very boring. Who else reads the tax codes?"

 Huntly Collins, of Mount Airy, a former Inquirer reporter and retired assistant professor of communication from La Salle University, remembered Barlett as a mentor. "I got to know Don and Jim – who were impossible to think about except as a pair – when I arrived in the Inquirer's business news department in 1983," she said. "Though they were holed up in their own office, they popped out to encourage me and offer advice whenever I was working on an investigative story. They had a laser focus on the public interest. When I was reporting on continued racial discrimination in the Philadelphia building trade unions despite a federal court order, they were an enormous help in analyzing the statistical data that backed up my findings."

 Jeff Gelles, a former editor, reporter and columnist for the Inquirer and a Chestnut Hill resident who serves as chair of the Rex Avenue Neighbors Association, said he had "enormous respect" for Barlett. He recalled how Barlett and Steele had their own office near the business news department. "I remember visiting them there once and having a long discussion about their reporting on the alternative minimum tax," he said. "... Don was soft-spoken but a great colleague who always made time to answer questions from other writers and editors. He and Jim inspired a whole generation of journalists at the Inquirer and around the country to look around corners and find the stories that were hiding in plain sight."

 Barlett and Steele had a way of making otherwise dry numbers come alive in meticulous yet absorbing detail. In "America: What Went Wrong?," they sifted through thousands of documents and databases, using countless examples involving real people to describe what they called "the relentless shrinking of the middle class." The stories generated a huge response from readers — more than 20,000 letters, notes, phone calls and requests for reprints.

 Barlett's first marriage, to the late Shirley Jones, ended in divorce. They adopted a son, Matthew. Barlett then married Eileen Reynolds. In addition to his wife and son, Barlett is survived by a sister, Sandra; a brother, Richard; and other relatives. Funeral services had not been arranged by press time.