/ 17 April 2007

Wall Street Journal wins public service Pulitzer

The Wall Street Journal won the coveted Pulitzer Prize for public service on Monday for its probe into backdated stock options for business executives that led to investigations and dismissals in corporate America.

The Journal was one of several winners of the 91st annual Pulitzer Prizes in Journalism, Letters, Drama and Music whose work illustrates journalism’s watchdog role, the Pulitzer board said.

The prizes, announced at Columbia University, come with a $10 000 award except for the public service prize, the winner of which gets a gold medal.

Brett Blackledge of the Birmingham News in Alabama won the prize for investigative reporting for exposure of corruption in the state’s two-year college system, while the Pulitzer for local reporting went to Debbie Cenziper of the Miami Herald for coverage of waste and favouritism at a housing agency.

The Pulitzer for national reporting went to Charlie Savage of the Boston Globe for coverage of US President George Bush’s use of ”signing statements” to assert his right to bypass provisions of new laws.

The editorial writing prize went to New York’s Daily News for editorials on behalf of neglected Ground Zero workers with health problems, the board said.

Several winners ”put the spotlight on controversial government action or inaction,” said Sig Gissler, administrator of the prizes. ”It is also notable the way the watchdog function of journalism was underscored.”

Flawd reporting

A bit of a media uproar ensued in New York over the Daily News editorials and news coverage of one police officer who died of lung disease when it was revealed that the officer had not worked at Ground Zero, but nearby, and was not in the area until months after September 11.

Gissler noted that the revelations about the officer did not occur until after 2006, the year for these awards, and also that the flawed reporting was not done by the editorial board.

The Wall Street Journal staff won the international reporting prize for its coverage of capitalism in China.

The staff of the Oregonian in Portland, Oregon, won the Pulitzer for breaking news for its coverage of a family missing in the mountains.

At the New York Times, Andrea Elliott won the Pulitzer for feature writing for her portrait of an immigrant imam.

At the Los Angeles Times, Kenneth Weiss, Usha Lee McFarling and Rick Loomis won the Pulitzer for explanatory reporting for their reports on distressed oceans.

The Pulitzer for commentary went to Cynthia Tucker of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and the prize for criticism went to Jonathan Gold of the LA Weekly for his restaurant reviews.

The Pulitzer for editorial cartooning went to Walt Handelsman of Newsday, of Long Island, New York.

The Pulitzer for breaking news photography went to Oded Balilty of the Associated Press, while the prize for feature photography went to Renee Byer of California’s Sacramento Bee.

The fiction prize went to The Road by Cormac McCarthy; the drama award went to Rabbit Hole by David Lindsay-Abaire and the history prize went to The Race Beat: The Press, the Civil Rights Struggle, and the Awakening of a Nation by Gene Roberts and Hank Klibanoff.

The Pulitzer for biography went to The Most Famous Man in America: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher by Debby Applegate. The prize for poetry went to Native Guard by Natasha Trethewey and the general non-fiction award went to The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11, by Lawrence Wright.

The Pulitzer for music went to Sound Grammar by Ornette Coleman. A special posthumous citation went to jazz musician John Coltrane and a special citation went to science fiction author Ray Bradbury. – Reuters