Charlie LeDuff

After graduating from the University of California, Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, LeDuff was hired by The New York Times on a ten-week minority scholarship.[5] He was a staff reporter at The Times from 1995 to 2007, ending his tenure as a member of the Los Angeles bureau. LeDuff, who had been on paternity leave, quit The Times to pursue the promotion of his second book, US Guys, according to a memorandum from Suzanne Daley, the national editor. The next day LeDuff said his rationale for leaving was more complicated, noting that he made an appointment with Arthur Sulzberger Jr., the publisher and chairman of The Times, to say he would be leaving because, "I can't write the things I want to say. I want to talk about race, I want to talk about class. I want to talk about the things we should be talking about."

Of his professional career in newspapers, LeDuff states:

I’m not a journalist, I’m a reporter. The difference between a reporter and a journalist is that a journalist can type without looking. The problem with journalism is its self-importance. Like in the New York Times, there’s style guides; you can’t call a doctor a physician, you got to call him a doctor- too high falutin’. You can’t call an undertaker a mortician- too high falutin’; you got to call him an undertaker. You can’t call a lawyer an attorney, you have to call him a lawyer. But somehow, since we control it, and we’re very self-important people, you can call a reporter a journalist.[5]

LeDuff is best known as a contributor to the 2001 Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times series "How Race Is Lived in America"; a ten part series including a piece by LeDuff called "At a Slaughterhouse Some Things Never Die".[10][11][12] In 1999 the Columbia University School of Journalism gave him its Mike Berger Award for distinguished writing about New York City.[13]

From August to November 2006, LeDuff wrote an eight-part series for The New York Times called American Album. The series was composed of articles and videos presenting "portraits of offbeat Americans".[14] The profiles included pieces about "a Latina from the rough side of Dallas" who "works the lobster shift at a Burger King," a Minuteman and an Alaska national guardsman believed to be the first Inuit, or Eskimo, killed because of the Iraq war. LeDuff has covered the war in Iraq, crossed the border with Mexican migrants, and chronicled a Brooklyn fire house in the aftermath of 9/11.

LeDuff has been repeatedly accused of plagiarism and of reporting inaccuracies, to which he has responded.

A 1995 article for The East Bay Monthly was examined by Modern Luxury's San Francisco publication in a February 2004 article titled "Charlie LeDuff's Bay Area Secret" following suggestions that LeDuff had plagiarized elements of Ted Conover's book Rolling Nowhere: Riding the Rails With America's Hoboes.[15]

A January 18, 2003, article for The New York Times entitled "As an American Armada Leaves San Diego, Tears Are the Rule of the Day"[16] was accused of featuring inaccurate quotations and depictions of two of the ten subjects interviewed, according to an article published in September 2003 by Marvin Olasky in the evangelical WORLD magazine. According to Olasky, Lieutenant Commander Beidler, a subject profiled with his wife in the man-on-the-street piece, recalled saying something else to LeDuff and believed the quotes and depictions of himself and his wife used were inaccurate and fabricated by LeDuff.[17] According to Olasky, Times senior editor Bill Borders wrote to Beidler, saying that he had "thoroughly looked into your complaint" and concluding "[Mr. LeDuff] thinks that he accurately represented his interview with you and your wife, and therefore so do I."[17]

A December 8, 2003, article for The New York Times entitled "Los Angeles by Kayak: Vistas of Concrete Banks"[18] was accused of drawing from Blake Gumprecht's 1999 book The Los Angeles River: Its Life, Death, and Possible Rebirth. One week later, on December 15, 2003, The New York Times appended a clarification:[19]

LeDuff discussed various accusations made against his reporting in a March 11, 2008, interview with essayist Dan Schneider.[20]

In 2011, LeDuff was sued for defamation over a story he wrote in The Detroit News. A Detroit police officer alleged that LeDuff's stories asserted that she moonlighted as a stripper and danced at a never-proven party at the Detroit mayor's mansion. The officer denied both accusations.[21] The suit was ultimately dismissed.[22]

In 2012, LeDuff and his employer, Fox 2 News in Detroit, were sued for defamation by Cindy Pasky, owner of Strategic Staffing Solutions in Detroit.[23] Pasky said LeDuff falsely insinuated that her company was awarded a no-bid contract due to her political donations to the Wayne County Executive. As a result of the lawsuit, Fox 2 later reached a settlement that required them to remove the story from its website read a statement on-air that said, in part: "It was not our intent to assert or imply that there was any improper conduct on the part of S3. We regret if anyone misinterpreted our report."[24]

In 2013, LeDuff was accused of urging a man to enter the race for Detroit mayor because his name was similar to Mike Duggan's, a then-candidate for mayor who would ultimately win. The Detroit Free Press and WXYZ-TV both reported that Detroit barber Mike Dugeon "told them LeDuff suggested he file when the award-winning and controversial Fox 2 reporter showed up on his porch early Thursday."[25] According to Dugeon, Leduff said: "'Well wouldn't it be funny to see who would split the votes?' or something like that." LeDuff denied Dugeon's claims, saying he contacted Dugeon after receiving a tip about his interest in entering the race.

Also in 2013, LeDuff was cited for urinating in public at the Detroit St. Patrick's Day parade, accused by witnesses of being drunk in public and later biting a security guard. According to WDIV-TV, "witnesses say LeDuff appeared highly intoxicated and was seen urinating in in the street near Brooklyn and Michigan Avenue. LeDuff also was involved in a 'large' fight."[26] LeDuff would later say he was "not really sure what happened," but confirmed he was part of a fight, saying alcohol was to blame. [27] He told WXYZ-TV that he "did not remember" if he urinated in public. LeDuff was not ultimately charged.

In 2016, another lawsuit forced LeDuff and Fox 2 Detroit to admit LeDuff's story was "incorrect." In a report, LeDuff accused the head of the Detroit Land Bank of lying, an assertion that she denied. The director filed suit and, months later, Fox 2 News anchor Monica Gayle would read an on-air apology that said, in part: "We reported based on certain emails Land Bank Director Carrie Lewand-Monroe was in the loop about possible fraud allegations but testified to the contrary at the proceedings.That was incorrect.  Lewand-Monroe testifed that she didn't recall being made aware of the billing inaccuracies and a closer reading of those emails show they do not specifically accuse anyone of fraud and do not prove that Lewand-Monroe knew about such allegations. Our apologies for the inaccuracy."  [28]

LeDuff and Fox 2 severed ties later that same year. [29]

In 2023 LeDuff was fired by The Detroit News for a tweet he authored, directed at Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessell, "See you next Tuesday," a coded reference to a vulgar word.[30]

LeDuff is the author of four books:

• Sh*tshow!: The Country's Collapsing and the Ratings Are Great, 2018
• Detroit: An American Autopsy, 2013
• US Guys: The True and Twisted Mind of the American Man, 2008
• Work and Other Sins: Life in New York City and Thereabouts, 2005