Washington Post Wins Six Pulitzer Prizes

After being passed over in 2007, the Washington Post swept the 2008 Pulitzer Prizes by winning in six categories. The paper is second only to the New York Times’ record of seven Pulitzers following their coverage of the September 11 attacks in 2001.

Administrator of the Pulitzer Prizes Sig Gissler handed out press packets announcing the winners at 3:00 p.m. in the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism's World Room. "This is our 92nd year, so we're old," Gissler said at the meeting. "We've had relatively few finalists leaked this year, so many winners are likely to be truly surprised today."

The Washington Post was awarded for its Breaking News Reporting, International Reporting, Feature Writing, and Commentary. It was also recognized with a Pulitzer in Public Service for its work exposing the mistreatment of wounded war veterans at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.

Other finalists in the Public Service category included The Charlotte Observer for its work on the mortgage and housing crisis, and Newsday for its investigation of the dangers posed by the gap between New York's trains and boarding platforms.

The breaking news prize, given for the Washington Post’s online breaking coverage of the Virginia Tech shooting, marks what Gissler saw as a turning point in Pulitzer history—this is only the second year the Board has considered online entries for all categories, excluding still photography.

The national and international reporting awards were given for the Washington Post’s exploration of Vice President Dick Cheney’s influence on national policy and a series on lawless private security contractors in Iraq, respectively.

The Washington Post’s Gene Weingarten won the Pulitzer Prize in feature writing for his articles about the effects of a violinist’s music on D.C. metro commuters, while Steven Pearlstein's "insightful columns that explore the nation's complex economic ills with masterful clarity" won the commentary category for the Washington Post.

There was no winner this year in the Editorial category, which Gissler said represented a lack of majority vote rather than a decreased quality in editorial writing.

"I don't discuss the board's decisions, and I can say that the entries had merit," Gissler said.

The prestigious Pulitzer Prizes, awarded each year by Columbia University, are determined by jurors who choose three finalists in each category. The 17 voting members of the Board then vote on one winner. Gissler and Columbia Journalism School Dean Nicholas Lemann are the only two nonvoting members of the Pulitzer Board. A board member must recuse him or herself if any of the entries are from his or her newspaper or newspaper group.

Bob Dylan received a rare Special Citation in Music. There have only been 38 such citations since 1917, and Dylan joins the ranks of past recipients that include George Gershwin and Duke Ellington. "With Dylan we are recognizing a body of work," Gissler said. “The Citation also reflects the effort of the Board over the last four years to broaden the scope of the music prize."

Two prizes were also awarded for investigative reporting, which Gissler called “heartening examples” of “high-quality journalism.” The New York Times was recognized for its investigative reporting on toxic impurities in medicine and other products imported from China, while the Chicago Tribune Staff won the other investigative reporting award for its "exposure of faulty governmental regulation of toys, car seats and cribs, resulting in the extensive recall of hazardous products."

The New York Times also won the Explanatory Reporting award for its probing of the ethical quandaries posed by DNA testing.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's David Umhoefer garnered the award in local reporting for stories on "the skirting of tax laws to pad pensions of county employees, prompting change and possible prosecution of key figures," according to the Pulitzer release.

The Boston Globe's Mark Feeney was recognized with an award in criticism for his articles about the visual arts.
Adrees Latif's "dramatic photograph of a Japanese videographer, sprawled on the pavement, fatally wounded during a street demonstration in Myanmar," earned Reuters the Pulitzer for Breaking News Photography. The Concord Monitor's Preston Gannaway won the Feature Photography Award, and Michael Ramirez of Investor's Business Daily won in editorial cartooning.

Outside of journalism, Junot Diaz’s novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao took the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, and Tracy Letts' play August: Osage County won for Drama.

To view the entrees of the 2008 Pulitzer Prize winners, please visit www.pulitzer.org.

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