Today is the last day at work for Doonesbury’s Rick Redfern, the best investigative journalist in the history of American comics. And PaperTrail couldn’t let him leave without saying a few words.

Doonesbury readers found out two weeks ago that The Washington Post was forcing Rick to take a buyout as the paper scaled back its investigative coverage. Rick’s worked for the Post for years, but he’s told the paper “can no longer afford to keep someone of your caliber on board.”

Of course, scores of our investigative colleagues have suffered the same fate as Rick, as major papers and magazines reduce their investigative coverage. Rick shouldn’t give up hope, though. Perhaps there’s a future for him in nonprofit investigative journalism?

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