[5] Wertheimer began her career with NPR as the first director of news magazine All Things Considered, hosted by Robert Conley, from its debut on May 3, 1971.

She received the award for her live coverage of the debate in the United States Senate about the Torrijos-Carter Treaties, concerning the Panama Canal, in February 1978.

[11] Washingtonian magazine named Wertheimer one of the top 50 journalists in Washington, while Vanity Fair called her one of the 200 most influential women in America.

[6] Wertheimer has received several other accolades, including awards from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting for her anchoring of The Iran-Contra Affair: A Special Report—a series of 41 half-hour programs on the Iran-Contra congressional hearings[12]—from American Women in Radio and Television for her story Illegal Abortion, and from the American Legion for NPR's coverage of the Panama Canal Treaty debates.

To avoid an apparent conflict of interest, Linda Wertheimer does not do stories on campaign finance reform, because her husband is a vocal advocate on that issue.