Phil Pruitt

Phil Pruitt

Phil Pruitt

Digital Editor

Phil Pruitt is a digital editor in the Scripps News Washington Bureau. He contributes regularly to "The Why" and helps edit the text for investigative stories. He also builds and publishes the pages for investigative stories on Scripps News. Before joining Scripps in 2014, he was an editor in the Yahoo Washington bureau from 2010-2013 and held a number of editing positions at Gannett News Service and USA Today from 1982-2010. While working at Gannett News Service, he edited a package of stories that won the 1991 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting. Phil often thinks about an interview with Bill Clinton in 1987 when Clinton was governor of Arkansas. The thing that was interesting about Clinton was that he had a raw political agility that allowed him to morph easily from an ""aw-shucks"" good old boy to policy sophisticate. It was a talent that could be disarming and required journalists to work hard to keep their critical distance. Phil’s dream interview is Bob Dylan. First question: If he wrote “Blowin' in the Wind” today, how would the lyrics be different?

Recent Work
Man holding riffle.

Federal Funds Coming For Red Flag Laws: What The Laws Do

An individual gets vaccinated at La Familia's vaccine site in Hayward, California.

Complex Obstacles As Latino Vaccine Numbers Lag Behind Cases

U.S. Supreme Court building

Qualified Immunity: Unjust Or Necessary?

Session of Congress in the early 1900s

The Traits That Once Predicted Who Would Be Elected To Congress

Library from the floor pointing up

As Young People Experience New Kinds Of Media, It's Changing Libraries

Graphic of hands holding a smartphone

The Regional Dialects Of The Internet

Woman on a therapist's couch

To Help Suicidal Teens Recover, Doctors Appoint 'Caring Adults'

Hands on computer

'People Search Sites' Make Money Selling Access To Public Documents

Woman looking at her phone

Those That Dread Talking On The Phone

Sentencing guidelines graphic

How Judges Consider Gender In Sentencing

Graphic of clothing, shoes, furniture and golf clubs

As Resale Markets Grow, So Has The Need For 'Authenticators'

A neighborhood

Which Neighborhood You Grow Up In Can Predict Your Income As An Adult

A young transgender woman looking in a bathroom mirror

The Origins Of The LGBTQIA+ Acronym

Newspaper graphic

Examining Fairness In Cable News

Houses in California

The Political And Predictive Power Of Dynamic Scoring

Man looking through VR headset

Why Experts Can't Rule Out The Possibility We Live In A Simulation

Whitney Houston singing

When A Musician Dies, What Should Happen To Their Unreleased Work?

Nurse and patient

The Link Between Cost And Quality In American Health Care

Baby and parent with matching tattoos

Why Some Scientists Think Newborns Look More Like Their Dads

Man taking a photo on a hike

Leave No Trace: Treating The Wilderness Like A Museum

Microphones in black and white

'Stage Jitters' Could Have Developed During Humanity's Primitive Days

Woman uses a computer at a restaurant

Remote Work May Ramp Up Productivity, But Workers Feel Isolated

Minor Threat performs onstage

Straight Edge: The Subgenre That Turned A Counterculture On Its Head

Milk on a table

More People Want Milk — Just Not From Cows

A cat

The Vivid Inner Worlds Of Animals

Beyonce Coachella Concert

Does Every Pop Song Really Sound The Same?

Chimps playing with boxes

Our Affinity For Fairness Is Not Unique To Humans

Office workers

Open Salary Models Hold Risks and Benefits

Woman cutting hedges

Starting A Hobby Supercharges Brain Cells

Workers on a line

'Passions' Are Cultivated Not Discovered