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You can be a Pulitzer nominee -- just like Buster Olney

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by inthesuburbs, Mar 27, 2010.

  1. inthesuburbs

    inthesuburbs Member

    Buster Olney's online bio says, "Olney has twice been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize award for his writing (1997, 1998)."

    http://www.espnmediazone.com/bios/Talent/Olney_Buster.htm

    Yet the nominees in 1997 were Byron Acohido, Celia Dugger, and Craig Flournoy.

    http://www.pulitzer.org/citation/1997-Beat-Reporting

    And the nominees in 1998 were Linda Greenhouse, Keith Bradsher, Jason DeParle, and Laurie Garrett.

    http://www.pulitzer.org/citation/1998-Beat-Reporting

    A search of the winners and nominees on the Pulitzer Web site finds nothing for Olney:

    http://www.pulitzer.org/faceted_search/results/olney

    So here's the moral: If you want to be a Pulitzer nominee, don't waste time trying to do Pulitzer-worthy work or being chosen by the jury as one of the nominees for that year. So time consuming.

    Just declare yourself a nominee.
     
  2. Moderator1

    Moderator1 Moderator Staff Member

    Uh, were those the nominees or the finalists. I think there's three finalists but maybe more nominees? Does your paper submitting your work make you a nominee? I know you have to be selected as a finalist.
    I don't know any of these answers but we maybe ought to have them before condemning Buster, no?
     
  3. inthesuburbs

    inthesuburbs Member

    Uh, no. Having your paper submit your work makes you a Pulitzer entrant. Put that in your bio!

    (... "the 12-time Pulitzer entrant...")

    Nominees are chosen by the jury. The Pulitzer folks call them nominated finalists.

    It works just like the Academy Awards, but without the red carpet. There are thousands of entrants, and a few nominees (finalists), and from those, a winner is chosen.

    To call yourself a nominee, or a finalist, when you're just an entrant whose work was passed over by the jury, is to claim an honor to which you're not entitled.

    Not to mention robbing honor from those who were in fact nominees in that year, including some from Olney's own newspaper.

    The Pulitzer Web site explains what it means to be a nominee: "Since 1980, when we began to announce nominated finalists, we have used the term 'nominee' for entrants who became finalists. We discourage someone saying he or she was "nominated" for a Pulitzer simply because an entry was sent to us."

    Just to be clear: You ask, were those the nominees or the finalists. The nominees are the finalists. Same thing.

    Your paper can't make you a Pulitzer nominee any more than your movie studio can make you an Academy Award nominee.

    http://www.pulitzer.org/faq
     
  4. TheSportsPredictor

    TheSportsPredictor Well-Known Member

    I have a feeling those people listed aren't all the nominees, since anyone can be nominated for a cool 50 bucks.

    Now, the Pulitzer organization itself does not recognize "nominees" as a catagory, according to this: http://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2010/03/08/rod-dreher-and-the-templeton-bribe/

    And they also discourage people from using that term.

    Still, there's nothing wrong with Olney's bio, which is probably discouraging the anonymous potshotter who can't get his facts straight.
     
  5. Moderator1

    Moderator1 Moderator Staff Member

    OK, I came with questions and you had answers ready - that's why I'm such a good editor!! (I kid).
    I was not familiar with the terminology.
     
  6. TheSportsPredictor

    TheSportsPredictor Well-Known Member

    P.S. You d_bed yourself:

    http://www.sportsjournalists.com/forum/threads/73151/
     
  7. inthesuburbs

    inthesuburbs Member

    Yes, Plaschke was a Pulitzer-nominee faker. Now Olney is. Who'll be next?

    You say there's nothing wrong with Olney's bio.

    Nothing except that it misleads the public.

    You say there were probably lots of nominees that year. No, there were only three (or in some years, four), and you can see the list right there at the Pulitzer Web site. That's the point. Yes, anyone can send in an entry for $50 bucks, but that makes you an entrant, not a nominee, not a finalist.

    To claim that having your editor write a letter and spend $50 on you (or to spend that $50 on yourself, as many do), and then to claim it makes you a nominee (leading the public to think it makes you a finalist), is just the sort of behavior that journalists should call out, right? Every time.
     
  8. TheSportsPredictor

    TheSportsPredictor Well-Known Member

    Maybe you'll raise the righteous indignation on this thread you failed to raise on the other.
     
  9. inthesuburbs

    inthesuburbs Member

    If something is wrong, it doesn't matter whether everyone is indignant, or whether only one is.

    Fakers should be called out. You don't agree? And you're a journalist?
     
  10. TheSportsPredictor

    TheSportsPredictor Well-Known Member

    Since it doesn't matter that no one but you cares, we'll let you be all alone caring.
     
  11. inthesuburbs

    inthesuburbs Member

    Man, you're scaring me. You write or edit somewhere?

    You've ducked the facts, mangled the facts, and attacked the poster.

    What you haven't done is address the original topic.

    Back on topic, many of you will find people in your shop who falsely advertise to the public that they are Pulitzer nominees.
     
  12. Mizzougrad96

    Mizzougrad96 Active Member

    I have "contributed reporting to a Pulitzer-Prize winning section" on my resume. So does every person who wrote or edited for that section.
     
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