What stands out is it’s clear the Pulitzer Prize Board does not
grade on a curve.
Good journalism is good journalism regardless of the size of the
newsroom or annual budget or circulation. Winners included some of the big
guys, such as The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Los Angeles Times.
But the winners also included the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, The Advocate of
Baton Rouge and The Capital Gazette in Annapolis, Maryland, which won a special
citation for its heroic ability to continue publishing after a shooter
entered the newsroom and killed five of its staffers.
The biggest award of all, the public service Pulitzer, went to
the South Florida Sun Sentinel, which (like many newsrooms) has undergone major
cutbacks in recent years.
Poynter President Neil Brown, a member of the Pulitzer board,
said, “What comes through in this year's prizes, including the work of the
finalists, is tenacious accountability journalism.”
There is plenty to celebrate and respect from Monday’s awards, but two stood out to me. The first was the Sun Sentinel’s Pulitzer for exposing failings by school and law enforcement officials before and after the deadly shooting rampage at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, in February of 2018.
There is plenty to celebrate and respect from Monday’s awards, but two stood out to me. The first was the Sun Sentinel’s Pulitzer for exposing failings by school and law enforcement officials before and after the deadly shooting rampage at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, in February of 2018.
The other was New York Times’ reporter David Barstow winning his
fourth Pulitzer, tying him with Washington Post and former Miami Herald
photographer Carol Guzy for most ever wins by a journalist. Along with Times
colleagues Susanne Craig and Russ Buettner, Barstow won in the category of
explanatory reporting for an 18-month
investigation of President Donald Trump’s finances.
I had a chance to look closer at both Pulitzer winners.
Sun Sentinel’s bittersweet Pulitzer
Attendees look at a
memorial for the victims of the Parkland, Florida, school shooting after
an interfaith service on the one-year anniversary of the incident. (AP
Photo/Wilfredo Lee)
The
reaction inside the Sun Sentinel newsroom Monday when the staff found out
it had won a Pulitzer Prize? “Complex,” editor-in-chief Julie Anderson
told me.
“I don’t think it ever left our minds of why we won and the
tragedy that we were covering,” she said.
The horrific high school shooting that killed 17 students and
staffers and wounded 17 more still haunts South Florida, including those who
worked on the story for the Sun Sentinel.
Reporter Brittany Wallman told me, “Most of us can’t talk about
the coverage without getting emotional. The community is still grieving and
we’re grieving right along with them.”
The impressive part, several Sun Sentinel staffers said, was how
journalists across the newsroom galvanized to report every possible angle. For
example, longtime metro columnist Michael Mayo is now the food columnist at the
Sun Sentinel, but he returned to news and was part of a dozen or so journalists
who dedicated most of the past year to the story.
This is a newsroom, mind you, that had an estimated 350
journalists in 2005 and now has somewhere around 85.
“It was inspiring to see how we all came together, no questions
asked, to do the work that needed to be done,” Mayo said. “This was critical
work, and it continues to be.”
Barstow’s record Pulitzer
David Barstow (right)
and Alejandra Xanic von Bertrab of The New York Times, who won the 2013
Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting, pose for a photo with Columbia
University President Lee Bollinger. Barstow won a fourth Pulitzer on Monday.
(AP Photo/Richard Drew)
The New York Times’ David Barstow told
me he was shocked to have won his fourth Pulitzer.
“The journalism gods have been very, very good to me,” Barstow
said.
Truth be told, Barstow has been very, very good for journalism.
“I just believe so deeply that independent, honest journalism is
absolutely critical to a functioning democracy,” Barstow said. “It’s really
that simple. I think we’re like gardeners and we pull weeds. It’s not always
the sexiest work, but it’s really important work and if we don’t pull those
weeds then the garden doesn’t grow. That’s the way I feel and that’s what makes
me keep doing it.”
Barstow previously won Pulitzers in 2004 (public service), 2009
(investigative) and 2013 (investigative). Before joining the Times in 1999,
Barstow worked at the then-St. Petersburg Times (now Tampa Bay Times), where he
was a three-time Pulitzer finalist.
More Pulitzer thoughts
Pittsburgh Post Gazette
City Editor Lillian Thomas, center, hugs reporter Andrew Goldstein in the
paper's downtown Pittsburgh newsroom after it was announced that the paper's
staff coverage of the shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue last October was
awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Reporting, Monday, April 15, 2019.
(AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)- The Capital Gazette was awarded a special citation, the first time the Pulitzer board has done that since 2010. Poynter’s Kristen Hare has that story.
- It has been a rocky couple of years at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but the paper won a well-deserved Pulitzer in breaking news for its coverage of the massacre at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue. Kristen Hare has the news from the Post-Gazette.
- Poynter media business analyst Rick Edmonds looks at the local reporting Pulitzer won by the Advocate of Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
- Three Pulitzers were awarded to projects directly related to President Donald Trump: the New York Times’ explanatory story on Trump’s finances, the Wall Street Journal’s national reporting project on Trump’s secret payoffs to women who claimed to have affairs with him and freelancer Darrin Bell’s editorial cartoons involving the president.
Elsewhere in the media world
Flames and smoke rise
from Notre Dame Cathedral as it burns in Paris, Monday, April 15,
2019. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)- Check out Brian Stelter’s newsletter from CNN as he has the front pages of eight European newspapers and their coverage of the heartbreaking fire at the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.
- I want to correct something I had written in a previous newsletter about the upcoming Peabody Awards. The winners will be unveiled over the next two weeks with the honorees being recognized at a gala in New York City on May 18. Today, documentary winners will be announced. On Thursday, entertainment/children and youth winners will be named. Then, next Tuesday (April 23), news/radio/web/public service programming winners will be unveiled.
Pulitzer Day
Today is one of the most exciting days in journalism as winners
of the Pulitzer Prizes are announced. Be sure to check in with Poynter.org as
we bring you the latest on journalism’s most prestigious awards.
While you wait for the winners to be announced, we have a couple of
pieces to tide you over. Roy J. Harris Jr. has
a Pulitzer preview. And, just for fun, check out my list of the 25
greatest movies involving journalism. I’ve already received tons of
feedback, most notably: Where’s “The Philadelphia Story” and “The Front Page?”
Take a look at the list and let me know what you think.
Video and text – local news organizations were well recognized for their outstanding work – “The 2019 Pulitzer Prize winners in 14 journalism and seven letters, drama and music categories were announced on Monday, April 15 at 3 p.m. Eastern. Two special citations were also awarded.”
- Special Citations – – Capital Gazette “A special citation to honor the journalists, staff and editorial board of the Capital Gazette, Annapolis, Maryland, for their courageous response to the largest killing of journalists in U.S. history in their newsroom on June 28, 2018, and for demonstrating unflagging commitment to covering the news and serving their community at a time of unspeakable grief. The citation comes with a $100,000 bequest by the Pulitzer Board to be used to further the newspaper’s journalistic mission.”
The future of journalism
AP executive editor Sally Buzbee had some
worthwhile thoughts when she accepted the William
Allen White Foundation National Citation for outstanding journalistic
service at the University of Kansas last week. Buzbee spoke of the three
guideposts newsrooms must use to navigate the future of journalism:
Embrace innovation. Collaboration. And, she added, “Good,
fact-based reporting never goes away.”
The part about collaboration does seem intrinsic to the future
of journalism, and we’re already seeing smart examples of it in California
and North
Carolina.
“These collaborations are some of the most vital things happening in the
news industry,” Buzbee said. “They’re resulting in excellent journalism. And
they’re helping us all figure out what the future might look like — what
business models might work going forward.”THIS IS MY SO VERY SHOCKED FACE: Is Russiagate worse than Watergate?
News Corp CEO lashes tech giants, and the New York Times
News Corp's global chief executive, Robert Thomson, has used a speech to intensify his criticism of digital giants while taking aim at the "muck-spreading" media rivals of the Murdoch family.
There continues to be a debate about whether
the arrest of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange poses a threat to freedom of
the press. The United States did not charge Assange for publishing classified
material under the Espionage Act, but instead under the Computer Fraud and
Abuse Act. Translation: Assange is not being charged for publishing classified
materials, but for conspiring to steal them.
So, is that good news for press freedom advocates or is it still
a threat to journalism? Some, for instance, are comparing all this to The
Pentagon Papers.
“It is a threat to press freedoms, no question about it,” the
Intercept’s Ryan
Grim said on Sunday’s “Reliable Sources” on CNN. “The First Amendment
doesn’t distinguish between journalists and non-journalists.”
Grim warned journalists covering the story to not be fooled by the
Justice Department painting Assange as simply a hacker — this still could be a
dangerous threat to journalists.
The New York Times’ Karen
Crouse, who just might be the best golf writer in the country, chronicles
Tiger Woods’ remarkable victory at The Masters.
The Tampa Bay Times has unveiled newspaper
racks with video monitors that stream news, advertising and information.
The Atlantic’s Elaina Plott covers
the rise of George P. Bush, son of Jeb Bush and, perhaps, the future leader
of the GOPThe world weeps for Notre Dame - The Washington Post