Before joining the
Los Angeles Times in 2001, Pringle worked as West Coast bureau chief for
The Dallas Morning News from 1998 to 2001 and as Los Angeles bureau chief for Copley News Service from 1984 to 1998. He also worked as a stringer for
The Tampa Tribune and taught journalism part-time at Cal State Northridge.
Los Angeles Times Pringle is an
investigative reporter at the
Los Angeles Times. He has covered stories that include the
2004 California wildfires, corruption in the
Service Employees International Union, misspending in
Los Angeles's community colleges, corruption in
Bell, California, abuses by the
Coliseum Commission, drug use by former USC
Keck School of Medicine Dean
Carmen Puliafito and a subsequent lack of response by the
Pasadena Police Department, and the alleged abuse of women by USC gynecologist
George Tyndall. His book,
Bad City: Peril and Power in the City of Angels, is a behind-the-scenes look at his investigation into Puliafito and the consequent exposure of corruption at USC, the Pasadena Police Department, and the
Los Angeles Times. The book was published by
Celadon Books in 2022. It describes his year-long struggle to get the story of Puliafito's drug-fueled sexual activities published. Pringle's reporting on the case began with a March 2016 overdose incident, but his superiors at the
Times refused to publish the story, because they did not want to offend USC. He and colleagues persisted, continuing to research the case, until the
Times finally published the report in July 2017, long after Puliafito had resigned as dean.
Katie Benner of
The New York Times wrote that "Pringle’s fast-paced book is a master class in investigative journalism," adding "Pringle delivers his account in a torrent of sharp storytelling and righteous score-settling that might seem petty if the stakes were not so grave." ==Awards==