Charles Ornstein
Charles Ornstein is managing editor, local, overseeing ProPublica’s local initiatives. These include offices in the Midwest, South, Southwest and Northwest, a joint initiative with the Texas Tribune, and the Local Reporting Network, which works with local news organizations to produce accountability journalism on issues of importance to their communities.
Need to Get in Touch?
Charles Ornstein is managing editor, local, overseeing ProPublica’s local initiatives. These include offices in the Midwest, South, Southwest and Northwest, a joint initiative with the Texas Tribune, and the Local Reporting Network, which works with local news organizations to produce accountability journalism on issues of importance to their communities. From 2008 to 2017, he was a senior reporter covering health care and the pharmaceutical industry. He then worked as a senior editor and deputy managing editor.
Prior to joining ProPublica, he was a member of the metro investigative projects team at the Los Angeles Times. In 2004, he and Tracy Weber were lead authors on a series on Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center, a troubled hospital in South Los Angeles. The articles won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for public service, the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award, and the Sigma Delta Chi Award for Public Service.
In 2009, he and Weber worked on a series of stories that detailed serious failures in oversight by the California Board of Registered Nursing and nursing boards around the country. The work was a finalist for the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for public service.
Projects edited or co-edited by Ornstein have won the Pulitzer Prize for public service, the Selden Ring Award for Investigative Reporting, the Scripps Howard Impact Award, the IRE Award, the Online Journalism Award and other major journalism honors.
He previously worked at the Dallas Morning News, where he covered health care on the business desk and worked in the Washington bureau. Ornstein is a past president of the Association of Health Care Journalists and an adjunct journalism professor at Columbia University. Ornstein is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania.
Changing Laws and Changing Lives: Why ProPublica Is Dedicated to Local Investigations
Managing Editor Charles Ornstein explains the many ways ProPublica is trying to help fill the void left by local newsrooms shrinking and closing across the country.
Our Editor Won a 6-Year Legal Battle. It Didn’t Feel Like a Victory.
After publishing a story on a doctor accused of violating federal research rules and skirting ethical guidelines, ProPublica’s Charles Ornstein was named in a libel suit. An appeals court recently dismissed the case, but the experience took a toll.
Cómo alcanzamos a lectores en las granjas lecheras con un artículo sobre ellos
Para reportar sobre las condiciones en las granjas lecheras de Wisconsin, teníamos que tomar medidas creativas para hacer llegar nuestros hallazgos a los trabajadores. Aquí explicamos lo que hicieron las reporteras Melissa Sanchez y Maryam Jameel.
How We Reached Workers While Reporting on Dairy Farm Conditions
As we reported on dairy farms in Wisconsin, we knew we’d have to get creative in how we got our articles to the affected workers. Here’s how reporters Melissa Sanchez and Maryam Jameel went beyond a simple translation to reach dairy farm workers.
Impact Matters Most at ProPublica. Here’s How Our Recent Journalism Has Led to Change.
Impact in accountability journalism is unpredictable. Here’s how ProPublica’s recent articles have prompted change in the world.
How ProPublica’s Local Stories Reach the Communities We Report On
Getting our investigation’s findings to the people we write about is just as important as reaching a large audience. Consider these two examples.
After Receiving Millions in Drug Company Payments, Pain Doctor Settles Federal Kickback Allegations
Dr. Gerald M. Sacks, who was named in a 2010 ProPublica investigation, will pay more than $270,000 to resolve allegations of taking kickbacks, though he denies taking them.
Federal Patient Privacy Law Does Not Cover Most Period-Tracking Apps
A patient privacy law known as HIPAA, passed in 1996, hasn’t kept pace with new technologies and at-home tests.
How We Fight Back When Officials Resist Releasing Information You Have a Right to Know
Texas agencies have fought against releasing records that could help clarify the response to the Uvalde school shooting. The blanket denials are reminiscent of another tragic case one reporter covered years ago.
New Documents Show How Drug Companies Targeted Doctors to Increase Opioid Prescriptions
A trove of documents published as part of a legal settlement offers an unvarnished look inside the financial relationships between pharmaceutical companies and the medical community.
Memorial Sloan Kettering Gave Top Doctor $1.5 Million After He Was Forced to Resign Over Conflicts of Interest
Dr. José Baselga resigned as chief medical officer after payments he received from for-profit health care companies came to light in 2018. Then, Memorial Sloan Kettering quietly gave him a $1.5 million severance package, according to IRS documents.