Eric Eyre (born c. 1965) is an American journalist and investigative reporter, best known for winning the Pulitzer Prize in investigative reporting for exposing the opioid crisis in West Virginia. He was a statehouse reporter for the Charleston Gazette-Mail. He resigned his position in April 2020.[1] He is also the author of the book, Death in Mud Lick: A Coal Country Fight Against the Drug Companies That Delivered the Opioid Epidemic.
In 1998 Eyre began covering education, health, and business at the Charleston Gazette, now the Charleston Gazette-Mail.[2] The Gazette-Mail is a daily morning newspaper in Charleston, West Virginia with a daily print circulation of around 37,000.[3] Eyre worked at the Gazette-Mail until 2020, where he balanced his work as a full-time statehouse reporter and his pursuit of investigative projects spotlighting issues in the rural communities of West Virginia.[2][4][5]
He also formerly worked at Mountain State Spotlight, where he was a co-founder and senior investigative reporter. [6]
Awards and recognition
Eyre's work has received national recognition on several occasions. He has been the recipient of the following:
Pulitzer Prize in investigative reporting for “courageous reporting, performed in the face of powerful opposition, to expose the flood of opioids flowing into depressed West Virginia counties with the highest overdose death rates in the country”[2]
2017 Gerald Loeb Award for Local business journalism for "Painkiller Profiteers"[8]
Published works
Much of Eyre's work has been published through the Charleston Gazette-Mail. Some of his most notable published works include:
“Death in Mud Lick: A Coal Country Fight against the Drug Companies That Delivered the Opioid Epidemic" (2020)
“Painkiller Profiteers” (2016)
“The Meth Menace” (2013)
“Wired for Waste” (2012)
“The Well Connected” (2012)
“Grants, Graft and Greed at Workforce West Virginia” (2009)
“State of Decay: West Virginia's Oral Health Crisis” (2007)
“Web of Deceit: The Fall of West Virginia House Education Committee Chairman Jerry Mezzatesta” (2004)
Previously the Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting, No Edition Time from 1953–1963 and the Pulitzer Prize for Local Investigative Specialized Reporting from 1964–1984