Only Pulitzer for Toledo Paper Emerged from D.C. Bureau Now Set to Close

By: Joe Strupp A 2003 series in The Blade of Toledo, Ohio, which broke the story of a Vietnam village massacre, prompted several investigations, and won the paper its only Pulitzer Prize, likely would not have happened without the paper's Washington, D.C. bureau, which is slated to close later this month, according to the two writers who penned the series.

Mitch Weiss and Michael Sallah, who drew international attention for the series, which ran in 2003, told E&P that their investigation began after Blade reporter Mike Woods, a veteran of the D.C. bureau, obtained thousands of military documents through a source he had in the Pentagon.

"He got the tip," Weiss, now a deputy business editor at the Charlotte [N.C.] Observer, said Wednesday. "He had developed a relationship with Col. Henry Tufts and he gave [the documents] to the Blade."

A lengthy review of those documents led to 22 pages of classified material about an Army unit known as Tiger Force, which had committed months of atrocities in 1967, murdering innocent Vietnam civilians. Following months of reporting, and several trips to Vietnam, Sallah and Weiss wrote the series that was published in 2003 and led to the Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting.

They also recently completed a book, "Tiger Force: A True Story of Men and War," which is to be published in May by Little, Brown and Company.

"If it wasn't for the Washington bureau and Mike Woods, there is a good chance these documents would have been buried forever," Weiss said. "I really think if it wasn't for Mike Woods' friendship with Tufts, these records quite possibly would have been sitting there still."

Sallah, now the investigations editor at The Miami Herald, agreed. "It was almost like Bob Woodward getting a tip from Deep Throat," he said of Woods relationship with Tufts. "Woods and he struck up a friendship and Tufts was never happy about how [the Army] handled war crimes."

Woods could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

Sallah and Weiss' comments come just days after executives at Block Communications, which owns The Blade and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, announced plans to close the five-person D.C. bureau, which has operated out of the National Press Building since 1927 and had served both The Blade and Post-Gazette. Bureau chief Ann McFeatters said one reporter would remain, but work primarily out of Capitol Hill. Woods' job would be eliminated as well, but it is unclear If he would be reassigned to another beat outside Washington.

Blade editors declined to comment on the bureau closing, while Post-Gazette editors have not returned calls.

"It is pretty sad that it ended this way," Weiss said of the bureau closing. "It was a hard-working bureau."