Pulitzer Winners Offer Few Surprises

As usual, leaks about the winners had been floating around the industry for weeks. But the announcement of the 2006 winners of the Pulitzer Prize -- still journalism's highest honor -- were mostly expected because the best work this year was so obvious.

I like that the Pulitzer board split the Public Service award between the New Orleans Times -Picayune and The Sun Herald in Biloxi, Miss. Both papers worked mightily to cover Hurricane Katrina and found themselves faced with the same challenges as the citizens they were covering (see my story on the Times Pic's struggle here; I outline Knight Ridder's tremendous effort to help the Sun-Herald here). That the TP also won breaking news highlights that their work overall was more groundbreaking, and still involved the entire staff.

Among the big dogs, the Washington Post took home four, compared to the New York Times' three -- most for stories which have dominated the national conversation for months, including James Risen and Eric Lichtblau's NSA spying story (NYT), Dana Priest's secret CIA prison stories (Post), and Susan Schmidt and James V. Grimaldi's Jack Abramoff revelations (Post). Among smaller papers, the Rocky Mountain News scored two -- for feature writing and photography -- which was also impressive.

(And for you curmudgeons who always grouse about postings on awards, know that these awards often influence future press coverage by highlighting what the industry values. And I'm not just saying that because Times editor-in-chief Paul Tash sits on the Pulitzer Board and managing editor Stephen Buckley was a judge. Not at all.)

On a personal note, it was cool to see longtime fashion writer Robin Givhan of the Washington Post win in criticism -- both because she's a St. Pete times alum and because, usually, the award goes to something highfalutin' like architecture or classical music -- while other Times alums Priest and David Finkel also help us hometown folks feel good as an incubator of great talent. What makes us feel not-so-good: though rivals the Miami Herald and Sun Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale both were named as runners-up for awards, the St. Petersburg Times was not.

Guess there's always next year.

Comments

[formerly mr anonymous]

i suppose there's nothing wrong with the pulitzers, per se, but average people, not news insiders, may not understand that these are really only available to the biggest newspapers who spend the most on newsgathering.in other words, they are by the in-crowd, for the in-crowd.and of course, to try to offset this obvious fact, there is the annual award to a token small paper, i.e., the times-picayune and biloxi this year. usually, the small papers that win this are the lucky recipients of a major disaster in their own backyard, so they can't help but win prizes if they can type and press shutter buttons.rest assured, eric, when the big one hits st pete, the spt will finally win a pulitzer. otherwise, nothing happens of national import around here to get on the list.

[Eric Deggans]

Well, the Times has already won six pulitzers, the most recent in 1998, for Tom French's examination of the search to find a guy who killed a mom and her two kids vacationing here. Similarly, the Miami Herald and Sun Sentinel were finalists for stories only tangentially related to a disaster. I would suggest your cynicism is a bit deep and a little misplaced...

[Anonymous]

And todays spin is....Lets see, a single unnamed witness disagrees with the other 11 witnesses, and the SPT chooses to focus on the lone dissenter.He wasn't an undocumented worker, he was an illegal alien. He wasn't a law abiding worker, he was a criminal. So is his wife.Sami al-arian is a terrorist. He's not a sweet little professor who just wants to help build schools for those poor little palestinian animals. He's up to his chin in PIJ involvement. I suppose the SPT would have the same sympathy for a klansman who claims he just wants to help white kids....It's almost a joke. You can always count on the SPT to champion terrorists and criminals as long as they happen to be minorities.

[Anonymous]

What's amazing is that the SPT is attempting to spin a clear cut case of an officer firing in self defense, but it won't touch the Duke case.How about the 2 white kids being railroaded? There are so many holes in Tawana Brawleys story that you could drive a truck through them. Oh wait, the SPT is only interested when it's a muslim terrorist, illegal mexican, or felony laden black.

[Eric Deggans]

we have a follow up today to the story you're referring to, where we reveal the accounts of other witnesses who back the officers' account as discuss the criminal records of both the dead husband and his wife.You likely wouldn't even know the facts surrounding this case if we weren't reporting them. And I expect we will keep asking incisive questions of people on both sides of this issue for as long as the shooting remains newsworthy.

[Anonymous]

What's amazing is that the SPT is attempting to spin a clear cut case of an officer firing in self defense, but it won't touch the Duke case.How about the 2 white kids being railroaded? There are so many holes in Tawana Brawleys story that you could drive a truck through them. Oh wait, the SPT is only interested when it's a muslim terrorist, illegal mexican, or felony laden black. whew. whatever was in your morning cup of coffee, i want it!i'm hardly a mouthpiece for the times, but damn, talk about jumping from one subject to another! on face value, i'd have to say what has been leaked or released about the duke care sure wreaks of tawana brawley... that there is certainly a reasonable doubt. but to be fair and objective, we don't know the hand that the durham DA is holding. let's wait until he shows his cards. i mean, we don't know if one of the players flipped on these guys.if the DA had nothing, these two guys wouldn't have been arrested. i mean, you can't just (legally) lock up a couple of guys without something to hold them on, otherwise most of the team would be behind bars.

[Anonymous]

Incisive questions? Your first story was a fluff piece. Here's the noble Mrs. Lopez who just wanted to build a happy shiny life with her convict illegal alien husband. Then those evil police had the nerve to attempt a traffic stop. What's a sweet little illegal supposed to do? Just look at what those evil Republicans have caused with their immigration bills!! It's really their fault that Jose decided to ram a couple cruisers and attack a cop. He was just afraid he'd be deported, after all..... It's not one case, but a pattern. The SPT seems to love to humanize criminals and terrorists, and excuse or minimize their actions.

[Anonymous]

FEDERALES... FEDERALES!!!

[Anonymous]

wait a minute. i re-read the article. so mr. lopez, an "undocumented worker," was married the day before his death?here's an incisive question:how the hell does an illegal immigrant get a marriage license?

[Anonymous]

Your editorial board really is too much! Anyone with an ounce of common sense has known for a long time that al-arian was a jew-hating terrorist supporter. But after months of writing sympathetic stories about al-arian, the SPT now wants to wax indignant because of the guilty plea. Give me a break.Al-arian should be tied to his wife and kids and strapped with explosives. That would be justice.

[Eric Deggans]

You should read the editorials more often. We have been publishing critical pieces about Al-Arian since it became obvious that he was at least lying about his ties to PIJ.