During a 25-year career, he has reported on the civil war in Central America, industrial pollution in Texas, political corruption in Miami, system-crashing greed on Wall Street, and the secret world of offshore accounts and money laundering.
After a brief stint at The Pasadena Citizen, Bernstein joined the Miami New Times as a staff writer and reporter (1997–2002), where he covered political corruption and media and the environment with stories including the fight over Elián González, Everglades restoration and the 2000 presidential recount.
During his tenure at the Observer, Bernstein covered stories on government surveillance, Tom DeLay's money laundering legislative takeover and the demographic shift in Texas.
[5] In 2011, he and a colleague won the Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting for coverage of Wall Street in the lead up to the financial crisis.
[6][7] Bernstein worked as senior reporter as part of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists on the Panama Papers.