LeDuff has won a number of prestigious journalism awards, including a Pulitzer Prize, but has also faced accusations of plagiarism and distortion in his career, to which he has responded.
Before joining The New York Times, LeDuff worked as a schoolteacher and carpenter in Michigan and a cannery hand in Alaska.
[citation needed] LeDuff previously lived with his wife, Amy Kuzniar, and his daughter in Pleasant Ridge, Michigan, a northern suburb of Detroit.
[5] Among writers in the newspaper business who influenced him, LeDuff lists Mike Royko, Jimmy Breslin, and Pete Hamill.
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.
[12][13][14] In 1999, the Columbia University School of Journalism gave him its Mike Berger Award for distinguished writing about New York City.
[16] 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.
In January 2022, The Guardian published an article by LeDuff and Jordan Chariton (Status Coup News) about the lack of bribery and racketeering (RICO) charges in the years-long Flint water scandal, even under Democratic Attorney General Dana Nessel, in office since 2019.
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.
[21] 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"[22] 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.
[23] 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.
One week later, on December 15, 2003, The New York Times appended a clarification:[25] An article last Monday about the Los Angeles River recounted its history and described the reporter's trip downriver in a kayak.
In research for the article, the reporter consulted a 1999 book by Blake Gumprecht, "The Los Angeles River: Its Life, Death, and Possible Rebirth."
Although the facts in those passages were confirmed independently—through other sources or the reporter's first hand observation—the article should have acknowledged the significant contribution of Mr. Gumprecht's research.
When I was at grad school, I was working on a documentary and I was also contracted to write a long, six thousand word piece… I borrowed some thoughts from a guy’s book… Not incidents, none of that, sort of light stuff… I made a mistake as a student and I apologized for it.
[29] Pasky said LeDuff falsely insinuated that her company was awarded a no-bid contract due to her political donations to the Wayne County Executive.
[35] In October 2023, LeDuff was fired by The Detroit News for a tweet he authored, directed at Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, "See you next Tuesday", a coded reference to the word "cunt".
[37] LeDuff is the author of four books: LeDuff worked on an experimental project for The Times with the Discovery Channel and produced a show called Only in America, which featured participatory journalism where LeDuff played on a semi-professional football team, raced with thoroughbreds, performed in a gay rodeo, joined the circus, preached in Appalachia, joined the elite world of New York models and played one play on special teams for the af2 football club, the Amarillo Dusters.
[39] In July 2012, LeDuff's cheeky, yet serious, "par 3168" golf adventure report[40] through various neglected communities of Detroit, including the long-abandoned Packard factory, got national recognition.
[44] On November 10, 2013, LeDuff was prominently featured on a Detroit focused episode of the CNN series Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown.
[1] A month after the launch, in October 2018, Detroit radio "Superstation" WFDF (AM) 910 began airing the show on a trial basis; the station CEO joked that they'd have to do "a lot of bleeping" for broadcast.