DC reporter Fields among those leaving WSJ

Gary Fields, a reporter at The Wall Street Journal, covering criminal justice issues, is among those leaving the newspaper this week due to the buyout offer.

He’s been at  the paper since 2000.

Fields is also a board member for the Fund for Investigative Journalism, which supports investigate reporting projects around the world.

He was a sports editor for the Natchitoches (La.) Times from 1981 to 1985. From 1985 to 1990, he worked for The Times of Shreveport, first as the Natchitoches, La., bureau chief, then as a police reporter. In 1990, he had a short stint with the Gannett News Service in Arlington, Va., before moving on to the Washington (D.C.) Times as a police reporter, where he remained until 1991.

From 1991 to 2000, Fields worked at USA Today as a states desk editor, rewrite reporter and a criminal justice reporter. In 1997, Fields was named Journalist of the Year by the National Association of Black Journalists.

He has also received the National Press Foundation “Feddie” Award, the John Jay College of Criminal Justice Excellence in Criminal Justice Reporting Award, the Deadline Club Omnibus Award for Minority Issues, the Thurgood Marshall Journalism Award for covering death penalty issues, the James Aronson Award for Social Justice Journalism, and the National Alliance of Mental Illness Journalism Award.