Pulitzer thread

The winner are in:

http://www.pulitzer.org/node/8501

I know, I know, who cares about the awards when everything about the biz seems to be in the toilet, but I don't care.

The Pulitzer is still a big deal and hoozah and kudos to the Bristol, Virginia paper for pulling off a win in the public service category.

At around 35k in circ, it is one of the smallest papers in recent memory to be honored. I think it might be about the smallest period, but I'm no Pulitzer historian.

 

No, there was some tiny, tiny weekly that won about 10 years ago, IIRC.

Wiengarten wins two in three years.

 

Props to whoever it was on this board that pointed our attention to Gene Weingarten's story about parents who leave children in cars by accident. Heckuva story.

 

I see uplifting tales needed not apply.

The committee again reinforces: Death, corruption, war and evil are the bane of our existence - but they win a lot of awards, too.

 

sigh, missed again

 

Not to discount the work of anyone. Really. (Because I didn't read the winning entry)
But, how can the mission taking on the world's largest automobile manufacturer leading to the recall of 8.4 million cars (just in America) not win for public service?

 

Maybe it's just me, maybe it's the changing environment, but it seems the winning entries used to be stories that were pretty well known, now the Pulitzers seem to be like the Oscars, a way to spotlight great work that much of the public might not be familiar with.
Worked with Matt Richtel back in the day, figured he was too smart and too funny to stay in the biz and would have wound up on The Daily Show. Glad he stayed in.

 

Did that situation arise from anyone's reporting in particular? I thought it was more of the regulatory commission finally getting off its ass, but I don't remember anyone publishing that smoking-gun story. There will probably be some entries next year, especially AP with that latest doozy about the intentional withholding of research documents from the courts.

 

Was it an investigation into those who use kiddie pron online, then get nailed by the feds?

 

LongTimeListener,
Want me to open the link at the top of the thread and read it to you? Open the Public Service link and the give the Honorable Mention a read. It's like, one paragraph.

 

I'm sorry. I must be as dense as you seem to think I am, because this is all I'm getting on that page //

"Finalists
Also nominated as finalists in this category were: the Asbury Park Press for its exhaustive examination of how an archaic property tax system harms New Jersey’s economy and ordinary families, using stories and interactive databases to spark pledges of statewide reform; and Los Angeles Times and ProPublica, a joint entry, for their exposure of gaps in California’s oversight of dangerous and incompetent nurses, blending investigative scrutiny and multimedia storytelling to produce corrective changes."

//

I'm not seeing anything labeled "honorable mention."

In any case, that winning story, wow, is that a piece of exhaustive work. It makes my head hurt just to think about what the reporting process must have been for that.

 

ProPublica's the way I'm (naively) praying much of the business model goes, so I was heartened to see it got a nod.