He has worked for The Seattle Times, The New York Times and Reuters and has served on the board of Investigative Reporters and Editors. Since 2010 he has taught investigative reporting at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. Wilson joined The New York Times in 2004. During his time there, Wilson covered topics such as pharmaceutical and tobacco industries along with sports-related investigations, mainly steroids. One article he wrote about the Duke Lacrosse Case garnered criticism, as the case unraveled. Prior to working for The Times, he worked as an investigative projects reporter for The Seattle Times since 1989. Before working here, he worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and the Associated Press. At the Seattle PI, Wilson wrote that paper's story about Gary Little. Wilson is also a webmaster of Reporter's Desktop.
Family
Wilson's father and brother published a weekly newspaper in Washington. He has two children with Barbara Wilson, a high school teacher.