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 The Pulitzer Board, in conferring the most prestigious honors in
U.S. journalism and the arts on Monday, also honored the Los Angeles
Times for breaking news reporting for its coverage of the massacre
by Islamist militants in San Bernardino, California.
This year's announcement at New York's Columbia University marked
the 100th anniversary of the Pulitzers, which began in 1917 after a
bequest from newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer.
The AP's prize-winning "Seafood from Slaves" report was an
investigation into the mistreatment of workers in Southeast Asia
used to supply seafood to American supermarkets and restaurants. The
coverage resulted in the freeing of 2,000 slave laborers and
sweeping reforms, the board said.
The reporters "found captive slaves, countering industry claims that
the problems had been solved," AP Executive Editor Kathleen Carroll
wrote in her nomination letter to the Pulitzer judges.
"U.S. customs records show the (slave-peeled) shrimp made its way
into the supply chains of major U.S. food stores and retailers such
as Wal-Mart, Kroger, Whole Foods, Dollar General and Petco, along
with restaurants such as Red Lobster and Olive Garden," the AP
reported in the series of 10 articles.
The New York Times, with a record 117 Pulitzer prizes and citations
before this year's announcement, added two more in 2016, taking the
prize for international reporting in addition to its photography
award.
The Boston Globe, the Tampa Bay Times and The New Yorker magazine
also won two awards each. In total, the board handed out prizes in
21 categories, selected from about 3,000 entries.
In the awards for letters, drama and music, the musical "Hamilton"
by Lin-Manuel Miranda won for best drama. The Pulitzer board called
the Broadway hit "a landmark American musical about the gifted and
self-destructive founding father whose story becomes both
contemporary and irresistible."
Viet Thanh Nguyen won the fiction award for "The Sympathizer," an
immigrant story about a "man of two minds" and two countries,
Vietnam and the United States.
The board awarded the history prize to the T.J. Stiles book,
"Custer's Trials: A Life on the Frontier of a New America."
MIGRANTS AT SEA
The Reuters photo coverage of Middle Eastern migrants arriving in
Europe was led from Greece by Yannis Behrakis, chief photographer
for Greece and Cyprus and the Guardian newspaper's 2015 Agency
Photographer of the Year.
The team captured a series of images of migrants crowded on flimsy
sea craft and their first moments upon reaching Europe.
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"We showed the world what was going on, and the world cared. It
showed that humanity is still alive," Behrakis said. "We made for
these unfortunate people’s voice to be heard. Now with a Pulitzer,
we feel that our work has been professionally recognized."
Some images showed families rushing ashore, flailing away in the
water or collapsing on the beach. Others juxtaposed the rafters at
sea with a cruise ship or a leaping dolphin or the setting sun.
The Reuters photo staff was named as co-winner for breaking news
photography along with Mauricio Lima, Sergey Ponomarev, Tyler Hicks
and Daniel Etter of The New York Times, also for their images of the
migrant crisis.
It was the third Pulitzer for Reuters, a unit of Thomson Reuters,
having won for international reporting in 2014 and for breaking news
photography in 2008.
The Tampa Bay Times and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune shared the 2016
prize for investigative reporting. The two Florida newspapers won
for collaborative reporting on violence and neglect in the state's
mental hospitals.
The Tampa Bay Times took a second Pulitzer, with three of its
reporters being honored for showing the consequences of a school
board turning some county schools in to "failure factories."
The prize for national reporting went to the staff of the Washington
Post for developing a database on fatal police shootings and those
likely to fall victim.
Alissa J. Rubin of The New York Times won in the international
reporting category for her stories on the inhumane treatment of
Afghan women.
The Boston Globe's prizes were in the feature photography and
commentary categories, while The New Yorker took prizes for
criticism and feature writing.
(Reporting by Daniel Trotta, Frank McGurty and Daniel Wallis;
Editing by Howard Goller)
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