Washington Post Wins Six Pulitzers, Bob Dylan Wins One

Overlooked again.

Journalism's highest honor in 2008, the Pulitzer Prizes, were announced today, and once again I must live vicariously through former Times colleague Anne Hull, who won this year with Dana Priest at the Washington Post for her most excellent series exposing the shortcomings at Walter Reed Army Hospital. In all, the Post took home six awards -- its most ever -- including another by a former SP Times alum, Jo Becker, who worked with Bart Gellman to expose the enormous influence (and man-sized safe) of Vice President Dick Cheney. (UPDATE: I've also been informed that Anne's partner Dana Priest was also an SP Times alum from the '80s, which I didn't realize because I wasn't working here then.)

I also seem to remember that the day her Cheney story ran last year, Jo managed the awesome feat of getting a front page byline at the Post, where she used to work, and the New York Times, where she now works. (a Washingtonian magazine piece back then presciently asked, "What happens if the Post's Cheney series wins a Pulitzer?")

In criticism, the Boston Globe's Mike Feeney won; the paper provides a collection of his stories online, which range from movies to photography. It is very good work, and I applaud a newspaper which has the resources to keep publishing a writer who critiques photography (along with finalist Inga Saffron, who writes about architecture for the Philadelphia Inquirer).

But I do long for the days when beat critics such as Roger Ebert and Tom Shales won Pulitzers for the work they did in the crush of keeping readers informed, day-to-day, about TV and film. It seems to me too often the Pulitzers criticism honors go to writers who are a bit disconnected from most of the criticism average readers consume.

But since Bob Dylan got a Pulitzer for, well, being Bob Dylan, maybe that's already taken care of.

Here's the list of winners, courtesy of the AP:

JOURNALISM:
Public Service: The Washington Post
Breaking News Reporting: The Washington Post staff
Investigative Reporting: Walt Bogdanich and Jake Hooker of The New York Times and The Chicago Tribune Staff
Explanatory Reporting: Amy Harmon of The New York Times
Local Reporting: David Umhoefer of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
National Reporting: Jo Becker and Barton Gellman of The Washington Post
International Reporting: Steve Fainaru of The Washington Post
Feature Writing: Gene Weingarten of The Washington Post
Commentary: Steven Pearlstein of The Washington Post
Criticism: Mark Feeney of The Boston Globe
Editorial Writing: No Award
Editorial Cartooning: Michael Ramirez of Investor’s Business Daily Breaking News
Photography: Adrees Latif of Reuters Feature Photography: Preston Gannaway of the Concord (N.H.) Monitor

ARTS:

Fiction: “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao,” by Junot Diaz (Riverhead Books)
Drama: “August: Osage County,” by Tracy Letts
History: “What Hath God Wrought: the Transformation of America, 1815-1848,” by Daniel Walker Howe (Oxford University Press)
Biography: “Eden’s Outcasts: The Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Father,” by John Matteson (W.W. Norton)
Poetry: “Time and Materials,” by Robert Hass (Ecco/HarperCollins) and “Failure,” by Philip Schultz (Harcourt)
General Nonfiction: “The Years of Extermination: Nazi Germany and the Jews, 1939-1945,” by Saul Friedlander (HarperCollins)

MUSIC: “The Little Match Girl Passion,” by David Lang, premiered Oct. 25, 2007, at Carnegie Hall, New York. (G. Schirmer, Inc.)

SPECIAL CITATION: Bob Dylan

   

Comments

[Harley]

Dang, O'Reilly just called you a race baiter! Did you see it? It'll be back on at 11 EST.

[nikonqueen]

Eric, I believe Dana Priest is also a SP Times alum. She worked here back in the late 80s. (AG)

[Bruce]

Harley happens to be an Imus supporter.

And she said the right thing. O'Reilly is right as rain. You are a race baiter Mr. Deggans.

Face the facts. No one cares what you say. You have a total of 2480 Google links. Try checking any other reporter or journalist out on Google.

You are an infant who does't know his **s from a hole in the ground. Yourself and Al Sharpton are now truly insignificant in this political climate.

Keep your Imus stuff out of your St. Petersburg Times blog BS. I live about an hour South of your paper. Go to the beach and get a sunburn. You need to get fried a little.

[Eric Deggans]

Well, Bruce, as this is my blog, I guarantee one thing -- I'll always write what I think is important.

I hope you continue reading it. But if you find content objectionable, you can always not read it...If the blog is as low-profile as you say, then surely it won't matter what I write....