Saul began her journalism career working for
The Clarion-Ledger in Jackson, Mississippi, covering the state government and the state legislature. In 1981, Saul and
W. Stevens Ricks received the
George Polk Award for Regional Reporting for their article "Mississippi Gulf Coast: Wide Open and Wicked." While working for
The Plain Dealer, Saul, Mary Anne Sharkey, and W. Steve Ricks wrote a multi-part series in 1985 titled "A Law Unto Himself" that exposed the corrupt practices of Ohio Supreme Court Justice
Frank Celebrezze. Fallout from the series led to his electoral defeat in 1986. Saul joined
Newsday in 1984 and was the paper's national reporter from 1994 to 2000. Together with
Brian Donovan, she earned the 1995
Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting "[for] their stories that revealed disability pension abuses by local police." Saul moved to
The New York Times in 2005. formed the basis for the
2016 film of the same name. ==Personal life==