[1][2][4] Perry credited his interest in journalism to the influence of his stepbrother, William H. Whyte, (a reporter for the business magazine Fortune; later author of the best-seller The Organization Man, a prominent book analyzing corporate conformity of the 1950s).

[1][2][4][5] After the National Observer ended publication in 1977, Perry became the chief political reporter for America's principal business newspaper: the influential, conservative, New York City-based Wall Street Journal.

[1][2][3][4][5] Perry was noted by other journalists for a perceptive, frank, fair and forthright style, relatively free of wild pontificating, and unaffected by others' political gamesmanship and showmanship.

Unlike other leading national political reporters of his era, Perry refrained from personal publicity (including television appearances).

He wrote books about the shortcomings of the media, about how poll-driven marketing reshaped American politics, and about costly fiascoes in the military throughout history.

As an amateur historian and as an enthusiast about topics of the U.S. Civil War, Perry returned to book-writing toward the end of his career with the Journal.