Lindorff graduated from Wesleyan University in 1972 with a BA in Chinese language. He then received an MS in Journalism from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1975. A two-time Fulbright Scholar (Shanghai, 1991-2 and Taiwan, 2004), he was also a Knight-Bagehot Fellow in Economics and Business Journalism at Columbia University in 1978-79.

A former bureau chief covering Los Angeles County government for the Los Angeles Daily News, and a reporter-producer for PBS station KCET in Los Angeles, Lindorff was also a founder and editor of the weekly Los Angeles Vanguard newspaper, established in 1976, where he won the Grand Prize of the Los Angeles Press Club for his reporting. Lindorff also worked at the Minneapolis Tribune (now the Star Tribune), the Santa Monica Evening Outlook and the Middletown Press in Connecticut.

He is the author of four books, the most recent being The Case for Impeachment: The Legal Argument for Removing President George W. Bush from Office, written with attorney Barbara Olshansky of the Center for Constitutional Rights.

An investigative reporter since 1973, Lindorff has won numerous awards for his work, including the grand prize of the Los Angeles Press Club, a "Most Censored" award from Project Censored and a Brock Award for writing on agricultural issues.

Lindorff has been active on journalistic issues and was a founder of the National Writers Union in 1983, serving for many years in leadership positions in that union. He was also active in the Hong Kong Journalists Assn. during his five years in Hong Kong, when he was a correspondent for Businessweek magazine.

In addition to his work for magazines and writing books, Lindorff, since mid-2004 has run a news website called This Can't Be Happening! (www.thiscantbehappening.net), which by 2010 was reaching some 12-15,000 readers a month. On May 1, 2010, the site was transformed from a one-man operation to a news cooperative, featuring, in addition to Lindorff, three other prominent journalists, John Grant, Linn Washington and Charles M. Young.