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 The Daily News of New York and ProPublica, a web-based
platform specializing in investigative journalism, won the prize
for public service journalism for coverage of New York police
abuses that forced mostly poor minorities from their homes.
Other winners included an international consortium of more than
300 reporters on six continents that exposed the so-called
Panama Papers detailing the hidden infrastructure and global
scale of offshore tax havens used by the high and mighty.
The Pulitzers, the most prestigious honors in American
journalism, have been awarded since 1917, often going to famed
publications such as The New York Times, The Washington Post and
The Wall Street Journal.
But they are also won by smaller, lesser known publications
across the country whose work does not always gain national
attention when it is published.
Reporter Eric Eyre of Charleston Gazette-Mail in West Virginia
took the prize for investigative reporting for exposing a flood
of opioids in depressed West Virginia counties with the
country's highest overdose death rates.
The staff of the East Bay Times of Oakland, California, won the
breaking news award for coverage of the "Ghost Ship" fire that
killed 36 people at a warehouse party, exposing the city's
failure to take actions that might have prevented the disaster.
'TRANSPARENT JOURNALISM'
While the Pulitzer ceremony highlighted the news media's
importance to democracy, it has been challenged by so-called
fake news, which once referred to fabricated stories meant to
influence the U.S. election but has become a term used by Trump
to dismiss factual reporting that is critical. Trump has
frequently excoriated the media and in February called it "the
enemy of the American people."
Operating in the glare of the 2016 presidential campaign, David
Fahrenthold of The Washington Post took the national reporting
award. The judges said he "created a model for transparent
journalism in political campaign coverage while casting doubt on
Donald Trump's assertions of generosity toward charities."
Fahrenthold found that Trump's charitable giving had not always
matched his public statements. He also broke perhaps the biggest
scoop of the campaign, revealing Trump had been captured on
videotape making crude remarks about women and bragging about
kissing and grabbing them without their permission.
[to top of second column] |
 The Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan, a longtime
Republican, took the commentary prize for a series of critical
pieces about Trump during the real estate magnate's successful
run for the White House.
The New York Times staff won the international reporting prize
for articles on Russian President Vladimir Putin's efforts to
project Russia's power abroad, a particularly pertinent story
given U.S. intelligence conclusions that Putin's government
actively tried to influence the U.S. election in Trump's favor.
The Times revealed "techniques that included assassination,
online harassment and the planting of incriminating evidence on
opponents," the judges said.
Reuters was a finalist in the national reporting and breaking
news photography categories. Photographer Jonathan Bachman was
recognized for his image of a woman being detained by police
during a protest in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
In national reporting, the Reuters team of Renee Dudley, Steve
Stecklow, Alexandra Harney, Irene Jay Liu, Koh Gui Qing, James
Pomfret and Ju-min Park was recognized for their series “Cheat
Sheet,” documenting how the business of college admissions and
standardized testing has been corrupted.
The 19-member Pulitzer board is made up of past winners and other
distinguished journalists and academics. It chose the winners with
the help of 102 jurors.
More than 2,500 entries were submitted this year, competing for 21
prizes. Seven of the awards recognize fiction, drama, history,
biographies, poetry, general nonfiction and music.
Author Colson Whitehead won the fiction award for "The Underground
Railroad," a work the judges said "combines the violence of slavery
and the drama of escape in a myth that speaks to contemporary
America."
The Pulitzers began in 1917 after a bequest from newspaper publisher
Joseph Pulitzer.
(Reporting by Daniel Trotta; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
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