Dishonest and incompetent bureaucrats across North Carolina breathe a little easier today.
Pat Stith, a Pulitzer-prize winning investigative reporter who has exposed government corruption for 37 years at the News & Observer, will retire next month, Mandy Locke reports.
Stith's work sprang a man from prison and put five others behind bars. His revelations prompted rewrites of the state's workers' compensation laws, pointed out the environmental dangers caused by the pork industry and, most recently, revealed more than $400 million wasted by the state's mental health reforms.
"For almost 40 years, Pat Stith has been the soul of this paper," said Executive Editor John Drescher, who has known Stith for 27 years. "He represents the best of what we are: tough, fair, honest, vigilant and hardworking."
Stith, who had been pondering retirement for some time, accepted a voluntary buyout recently offered to full-time newsroom employees.
He will be greatly missed by his colleagues and readers. Just not by those bureaucrats.
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"The Call" from Pat Stith
When I got "the call" from Pat Stith 5 or 6 times during my career (as a source, mind you, not a subject) I knew something was up. Every time the article was a well sourced, well researched, hard hitting and accurate expose. Kudos to Pat.