In 1975, Brinkley moved to The Richmond News Leader in Virginia where he covered local and regional government.
He also covered a series of stories about the Ku Klux Klan and its leader David Duke.
He moved to the Louisville Courier-Journal in 1978, where he served as a reporter, special-projects writer, editor and Washington correspondent.
In 1979, he traveled to Cambodia to cover the fall of the Khmer Rouge for which he won the Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting in 1980.
[9][12] Brinkley wrote a weekly op-ed column on foreign policy syndicated by Tribune Media Services.