Walter is the Boston Globe's Editor at Large, and has worked at the Globe as reporter and editor for 43 years. He covered city, state and national politics and government, including four presidential elections and two Presidencies. He was the Middle East correspondent during the First Gulf War. He was city editor, metro editor, roving foreign correspondent, and for years an investigative reporter. He headed the Globe Spotlight Team from 1999 to 2006, and led the investigation that exposed the Catholic Church's coverup of decades of sexual abuse by nearly 200 priests.