Reintroduction: Refining Pulitzer’s Gold
2. “Who Killed the Newspaper?”
The Economist, August 26–September 1, 2006, 9–10 and 52–54.
3. Daniel Akst, “Nonprofit Journalism,”
Carnegie Reporter 3, no. 3 (Fall 2005): 20–29.
5. Yong Z. Volz and Francis L. F. Lee, “What Does It Take for Women Journalists to Gain Professional Recognition?: Gender Disparities among Pulitzer Prize Winners, 1917–2010.”
Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly (April 2013): 248–266.
6. Roy J. Harris Jr., “How e-Pulitzers Can Elevate Journalism,”
Christian Science Monitor, April 23, 2009.
7. Jim Amoss, e-mail to author, June 24, 2014.
8. Paul Steiger, telephone interview with author, May 12, 2014.
9. Bob Woodward, e-mail to author, March 5, 2014.
1. Sally Kestin and John Maines, interview with author, February 13, 2014.
2. John Hohenberg,
The Pulitzer Prizes: A History of the Awards in Books, Drama, Music, and Journalism Based on the Private Files Over Six Decades (New York: Columbia University Press, 1974), 18–20.
4. One discussion of French’s medals is in Michael Richman, “The Medals of Daniel Chester French,” in
The Medal in America, ed. Alan M. Stahl, 150–153 (Coinage of the Americas Conference at the American Numismatic Society, New York, September 26–27, 1987).
5. Ben Bradlee Sr., interview with author, October 13, 2005.
7. Michael Gartner, telephone interview with author, April 3, 2006.
8. Bob Woodward, interview with author, October 12, 2005.
9. Howard Saltz, interview with author, February 13, 2014.
10. Willie Fernandez, interview with author, February 13, 2014.
13. Paul Ingrassia, telephone interview with author, March 14, 2014.
14. Paul Tash, interview with author, February 10, 2014.
16. Paul Steiger, telephone interview with author, May 12, 2014.
18. Laura Poitras, e-mails to author, March 19 to July 3, 2014.
19. Bart Gellman, telephone interview with author, May 14, 2014.
20. Janine Gibson, telephone interview with author, May 9, 2014.
21. Glenn Greenwald,
No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the U.S. Surveillance State (New York: Henry Holt, 2014), 21.
24. Jeff Leen, telephone interview with author, May 16, 2014.
26. Martin Baron, telephone interview with author, May 21, 2014.
34. Michael Connelly, telephone interview with author, April 28, 2014.
35. Pulitzer Public Service 2014 jury report, made available to author upon request.
39. Bart Gellman, e-mail with author, May 18, 2015.
2. The Most Prized Pulitzer: The “Germ of an Idea” Takes Root
1. The quote was attributed to Philip Graham often and in various forms, including by editors and correspondents at the time of his death on August 3, 1963. According to
Morrow’
s International Dictionary of Quotations (1982), Graham apparently used the “first rough draft of history” line to describe both newspapers and
Newsweek when the Washington Post Co. purchased that magazine. A fuller discussion of the possibility that Graham drew the language from Alan Barth, a
Post editorial writer from the 1940s to the 1970s, is in Jack Shafer, Slate.com, August 30, 2010,
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/press_box/2010/08/who_said_it_first.single.html. The connection of news and history had been made by others, including Mark Twain in the first volume of the autobiography published years after his death in 1910. Twain wrote: “News is history in its first and best form … history is the pale and tranquil reflection of it.”
2. Quoted in an e-mail from Catherine J. Mathis,
New York Times, January 30, 2006.
3. Ben Bradlee,
A Good Life: Newspapering and Other Adventures (New York: Touchstone, 1995), 365–366.
4. Bradlee, interview with author, October 13, 2005.
5. Gary Pruitt, interview with author, November 15, 2005.
6. Original in the Joseph Pulitzer papers, August 1902, Columbia University Rare Manuscripts area, Butler Library. Also cited in John Hohenberg,
The Pulitzer Prizes: A History of the Awards in Books, Drama, Music, and Journalism Based on the Private Files Over Six Decades (New York: Columbia University Press, 1974), 10.
7. W. A. Swanberg,
Pulitzer: The Life of the Greatest Figure in American Journalism and One of the Most Extraordinary Men in Our History (New York: Scribner’s, 1967), 44.
9. Swanberg,
Pulitzer, 374.
10. Hohenberg,
The Pulitzer Prizes, 9–11.
12. A full account of Pulitzer’s establishment of the prizes is in Hohenberg,
The Pulitzer Prizes, 9–27.
13. David Shaw,
Press Watch: A Provocative Look at How Newspapers Report the News (New York: Macmillan, 1984), 191. For the
Los Angeles Times, he covered the Pulitzer Prizes more closely than did any other journalist. His Pulitzer stories are summarized in
Press Watch, chap. 7.
14. Columbia purchased the Liberty Window—installed in the old World Building to memorialize Joseph Pulitzer’s campaign to build the Statue of Liberty’s platform—from New York City for $1. It is dedicated to Herbert Bayard Swope, who helped arrange the deal. The city had condemned the World Building to improve access to the Brooklyn Bridge. See the footnote in Hohenberg,
The Pulitzer Diaries, 313.
15. Howard Weaver, interview with author, November 15, 2005.
16. Geneva Overholser, interview with author, December 1, 2005.
3. A Newsroom Challenged, 2002: The New York Times and 9/11
1. Gerald Boyd, telephone interview with author, February 2, 2006.
2. David Barstow, interview with author, September 9, 2005.
3. Christine Kay, interview with author, November 29, 2005.
4. Jonathan Landman, e-mail to author, March 27, 2006.
5. Allan Siegal, e-mail to author, March 14, 2006.
6. New York Times,
Portraits 9/11/01 (New York: Times Books: Henry Holt, 2002), ix.
7. Howell Raines, foreword to
Portraits 9/11/01, vii.
9. An account is in “Newsroom Celebrates ‘Days of Legend,’”
Ahead of the Times 10, no. 2 (April 2002).
10. A ten-year retrospective on “Portraits of Grief” was produced by the
Times. It is described in Harris, “‘Portraits of Grief’ Ten Years Later,”
Poynter.org, August 31, 2011,
http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/top-stories/144274/portraits-of-grief-10-years-later-lessons-from-the-original-new-york-times-911-coverage/. A retrospective on the 2002 Breaking News Pulitzer Prize winner, the
Wall Street Journal, is described in Harris, “How the
Wall Street Journal’s Improvised 9/11 Battle Plan Helped It to a Pulitzer,”
Poynter.org, September 6, 2011,
http://www.poynter.org/news/mediawire/144936/how-the-wall-street-journals-improvised-911-battle-plan-helped-it-to-a-pulitzer/.
4. Epiphany in Boston, 2003: The Globe and the Church
2. The first in a series of author interviews with Martin Baron and other
Globe staff members was April 7, 2003, in the newsroom, the day its Pulitzer was announced.
3. Eileen McNamara’s stories appeared in the
Globe on July 22 and July 29, 2002.
4. Jonathan M. Albano, e-mail with author, January 17, 2006.
5. Walter V. Robinson, “Shining the Globe’s Spotlight on the Catholic Church,”
Nieman Reports (Spring 2003): 56.
6. A Spotlight report prepared for Robinson and the author by Timothy Leland, the team’s founder, March 5, 2006. The discussion of
Newsday’s influence is also found in Robert F. Keeler,
Newsday: A Candid History of the Respectable Tabloid (New York: Arbor House/Morrow), 431–432.
7. Walter V. Robinson, interview with author, November 3, 2005.
8. Michael Rezendes, interview with author, November 3, 2005.
9. Matt Carroll, interview with author, November 2, 2005.
10. Sacha Pfeiffer, interview with author, October 11, 2005.
11. Robinson, “Shining the Globe’s Spotlight,”
Nieman Reports (Spring 2003): 56.
14. Thomas Farragher, interview with author, November 2, 2005.
16. Michael Paulson, interview with author, November 7, 2005.
17. Cover letter, Baron to Pulitzer Prizes, undated, 2003.
19. Sandra Mims Rowe, interview with author, November 16, 2005.
22. Michael Paulson, in an e-mail with author, May 23, 2015, cited Daniel Burke, “How to Really Measure the ‘Francis Effect,’”
CNN.com, March 13, 2014,
http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/08/living/pope-francis-effect-boston/; a sample of one
Globe follow-up story is Michael Rezendes, “Top Vatican Prosecutor Failed to Report Abuser,” November 23, 2014,
http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2014/11/22/vatican-new-top-prosecutor-abusive-priests-implicated-past-failure-stop-notorious-abuser-donald-mcguire/gPaBPJUdvuTy5PSTl1j5sM/story.html.
24. Steve Kurkjian, interview with author, November 3, 2005.
25. Bob Woodward, interview with author, October 12, 2005.
5. From Times to Times, 2004–2005: Rivals Win in New York and Los Angeles
1. David Barstow, interview with author, September 9, 2005.
3. Pulitzer Prize investigative jury report, 2004, from the Pulitzer Prize files, Columbia University.
6. Section describing the
Los Angeles Times King/Drew project reflects interviews with the author at the
Times office, primarily on May 25, 2005. Interviews were with John Carroll, Julie Marquis, Mitchell Landsberg, Tracy Weber, Charles Ornstein, and Steve Hymon.
8. Tracy Weber, Charles Ornstein, and Mitchell Landsberg, “Deadly Errors and Politics Betray a Hospital’s Promise,”
Los Angeles Times, December 5, 2004, on the Pulitzer website at
http://www.pulitzer.org/archives/6935.
6. The Storm Before the Calm, 2006: The Times-Picayune and the Sun Herald’s Summer of Katrina
2. The “Washing Away” series appeared in the
Times-Picayune from June 23 to 27.
3. Jim Amoss, “The Story of Our Lives,”
Quill (April 2006): 27.
4. Butch Ward, “From Biloxi and New Orleans: The Stories Behind the Pulitzers,”
Poynter, April 17, 2006,
http://www.Poynter.org.
6. Ward, “From Biloxi and New Orleans.”
7. Fitzgerald, “Jim Amoss, E&P’s 2006 Editor of the Year.”
8. Scott Hawkins, telephone interview with author, July 7, 2006.
9. Stan Tiner, interview with author, March 30, 2006.
10. Amoss, “The Story of Our Lives,” 28.
11. Mark Schleifstein, interview with author, May 29, 2006.
13. Michael Perlstein, interview with author, May 30, 2006.
14. Amoss, interview with author, May 30, 2006.
15. Peter Kovacs, interview with author, May 30, 2006.
16. “Tropical Cyclone Report,” National Hurricane Center, December 20, 2005, updated August 10, 2006.
19. Gene Roberts, telephone interview with author, August 2, 2006.
20. Janet Coates, telephone interview with author, April 21, 2006.
24. More detail in Harris, “Shared Glory for Pulitzer’s Top Prize,”
Poynter, April 17, 2006.
7. Stocks and Soldiers, 2007–2008: The Journal on Options, the Post on Walter Reed
1. Mark Maremont, interview with author, April 30, 2007.
2. Charles Forelle and James Bandler, “The Perfect Payday: Some CEOs Reap Millions by Landing Stock Options When They Are Most Valuable,”
Wall Street Journal, March 18, 2006, on the Pulitzer website at
http://www.pulitzer.org/archives/7196.
3. Dan Kelly, telephone interview with author, May 4, 2007.
6. Paul Steiger, telephone interview with author, May 12, 2014.
8. Dana Priest and Anne Hull, interview with author, November 6, 2008, and telephone interview with Priest, September 23, 2009.
10. Priest and Hull, interview with author.
12. Priest, follow-up interview with author, March 13, 2014. The topic of whether this was an undercover operation is discussed in Brooke Kroeger,
Undercover Reporting: The Truth About Deception (Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press, 2012), 3–9.
14. Priest and Hull, interview with author.
15. Tompkins, “Anatomy of a Pulitzer.”
16. Priest and Hull, interview with author.
18. Tompkins, “Anatomy of a Pulitzer.”
19. Robert Gates,
Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War (New York: Knopf, 2014), 110–111.
8. Prizing Youth, 2009–2010: The Las Vegas Sun and the Bristol (Va.) Herald Courier
1. Drex Heikes, interview with author at
Los Angeles Times, January, 14, 2014.
2. Alexandra Berzon, series of telephone interviews with author, April 16 to September 23, 2009.
4. Michael Kelley, telephone interview with author, March 19, 2014.
6. Neil Brown and David Boardman, telephone interviews with author, April 20, 2009.
7. Brian Greenspun, telephone interview with author, May 26, 2014.
9. Daniel Gilbert, Skype interview with author, April 20, 2014.
11. Paul Provonost, telephone interview with author, April 12, 2010.
12. Rebecca Blumenstein, telephone interview with author, June 4, 2014.
13. Jim Maxell, telephone interview with author, May 12, 2014.
9. The Tradition Survives, 2011–2012: Return of the L.A. Times and the Philadelphia Inquirer
2. Kimi Yoshino, Shelby Grad, Steve Marble group interview with at the
Times office with author, January 15, 2014.
3. Ruben Vives, interview with author, June 6, 2011. Vives and Jeff Gottlieb both interviewed with the author at the
Times office June 6 and again January 15, 2014.
4. Marble, group interview with author.
5. Davan Maharaj, interview with author, January 15, 2014.
6. Russ Stanton, telephone interview with author, April 18, 2011.
7. Kim Christensen, telephone interview with author, January 22, 2014.
10. Shelby Grad, group interview with author.
12. Bill Marimow, interview with author at
Inquirer, March 13, 2014.
13. Stan Wischnowski, interview with author, March 13, 2014.
14. John Sullivan, interview with author at
Washington Post, March 12, 2014.
15. Kristen Graham and Sue Snyder, interviews with author, March 13, 2014.
16. Mike Leary, telephone interview with author, March 6, 2014.
17. Sullivan, interview with author, confirmed by Snyder.
10. First Gold, 1917–1919: The Great War, Brought Home
1. John Hohenberg,
The Pulitzer Prizes: A History of the Awards in Books, Drama, Music, and Journalism Based on the Private Files Over Six Decades (New York: Columbia University Press, 1974), 28–31.
2. Meyer Berger,
The Story of the New York Times (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1951), 153. Also cited in W. A. Swanberg,
Pulitzer: The Life of the Greatest Figure in American Journalism and One of the Most Extraordinary Men in Our History (New York: Scribner’s, 1967), 300.
3. Berger,
The Story of the New York Times, 160–161.
5. The
Times used that spelling of what it would later call Serbia.
6. Berger,
The Story of the New York Times, 253–254.
7. Michael Richman, “The Medals of Daniel Chester French,” in Alan M. Stahl, ed.,
The Medal in America (New York: Coinage of the Americas Conference at The American Numismatic Society, September 26–27, 1987), 150–153.
8. Arthur S. Ochs, letter to Pulitzer Advisory Board, July 8, 1920, provided to author by the
New York Times.
10. Pulitzer Prize jury reports, 1919.
11. Robert W. Wells,
The Milwaukee Journal: An Informal Chronicle of Its First One Hundred Years (Milwaukee: Milwaukee Journal, 1982), 116.
1. This emerges from the collected letters of Joseph Pulitzer II, located in the Library of Congress. They feature his frequent communications with other board members, often before they met to decide on winners.
2. John Hohenberg,
The Pulitzer Prizes: A History of the Awards in Books, Drama, Music, and Journalism Based on the Private Files Over Six Decades (New York: Columbia University Press, 1974), 33.
3. Ibid., 41–42; Pulitzer jury report, 1921.
4. Mitchell Zuckoff,
Ponzi’
s Scheme: The True Story of a Financial Legend (New York: Random House, 2005), 43.
9. From the
Post’s 1921 Pulitzer entry; also Zuckoff,
Ponzi’s Scheme, 160.
10. Zuckoff,
Ponzi’s Scheme, 183–187.
15. Hohenberg,
The Pulitzer Prizes, 39–40.
17. E. J. Kahn Jr.,
The World of Swope: A Biography of Herbert Bayard Swope (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1965), 233.
18. Ibid., 240–242; Alfred Allan Lewis,
Man of the World, Herbert Bayard Swope: A Charmed Life of Pulitzer Prizes, Poker and Politics (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill Company, Inc., 1978), 94.
19. From the 1922 Pulitzer entry.
20. Lewis,
Man of the World, 94.
21. Pulitzer jury report, April 18, 1922.
23 Helen Bloom, New York University,
News Workshop newsletter, January 1965.
24. John Bartlow Martin, “Murder of a Journalist,”
Harper’
s (September 1946), 274.
25. From the 1927 Pulitzer entry.
26. John Hohenberg,
The Pulitzer Prize Story (New York: Columbia University Press, 1959), 47–48; also Bloom, New York University
News Workshop newsletter.
28. Joseph Pulitzer II, Collected Papers, Library of Congress. His letters show he kept close track of the numbers of awards the
World papers and the
Post-Dispatch won each year.
29. Pulitzer II, Collected Papers. From a letter to Columbia’s Nicholas Murray Butler, dated April 13, 1928.
30. Pulitzer II, Collected Papers. Letter from executive secretary Robert A. Parker to the Pulitzer Advisory Board, November 14, 1929.
31. Telegram from JP II to brother Ralph, dated August 6, 1929, one of several in the JP II papers on this subject.
12. From Depression to Wartime, 1930–1945: Corruption and the Dust Bowl
1. The case is summarized in John Hohenberg,
The Pulitzer Prize Story (New York: Columbia University Press, 1959), 50–55.
2. From the Pulitzer Prize archives, 1934. Also republished in Hohenberg,
The Pulitzer Prize Story, 51–52.
3. Seven-page Robert Ruhl letter, “Public Service Award,” undated, in the Pulitzer Prize archive.
4. Pulitzer jury report, March 6, 1934.
5. Pulitzer II, Collected Papers. Letter from Ralph Pulitzer to Pulitzer II.
6. Pulitzer jury report, 1934.
8. From the 1938 Pulitzer entry.
10. From the
Times’s cover letter with the entry.
11. An April 8, 1943,
Times article noted the
Harvard Crimson comments.
13. A Handful of Gold, 1936–1952: The Post-Dispatch Makes Its Mark
1. This chapter reflects work for the James C. Millstone Memorial Lecture delivered by the author to the Missouri Historical Society and the
Post-Dispatch staff, September 9, 2002; published as “The Gold Medal Crusade Years,” Saint Louis University School of Law, 2002. Summarized in Harris, “An Era of Crusaders,”
Quill (May 2003).
2. St. Louis Post-Dispatch,
The Story of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 6th ed. (St. Louis: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 1954), 5, 10.
3. Discussed in Daniel Pfaff,
Joseph Pulitzer II and the Post-Dispatch (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1991), 154–167.
4. Pfaff,
Joseph Pulitzer II and the Post-Dispatch, 37–39. More detail in Pfaff, “Pulitzer Journalism and Public Service,” James Yeatman Lecture, St. Louis, November 10, 2006.
5. Pfaff,
Joseph Pulitzer II, 227–228.
6. Louis Starr, “Reminiscences of Ben Reese,” Oral History Research Office, (New York: Columbia University, 1957).
7. As published daily on the
St. Louis Post-Dispatch editorial page.
8. Louis Starr, “Reminiscences of Ben Reese.”
10. Selwyn Pepper, interview with author, June 29, 2002; also from the 1937 Pulitzer entry.
11. Wayne Leeman, interview with author, June 29, 2002.
12. Pulitzer II, Collected Papers.
13. Pulitzer jury report, 1937.
15. Pfaff,
Joseph Pulitzer II, 212–213.
16.
Post-Dispatch Pulitzer entry, 1941.
19. Quoted matter taken from
Post-Dispatch 1948 Pulitzer entry.
20. Pfaff,
Joseph Pulitzer II, 225–226.
22.
Post-Dispatch Pulitzer entry, 1950.
23. “Chicago, St. Louis Dailies Win Pulitzer Gold Medals,”
Editor and Publisher, May 6, 1950, 7.
24. “Reporters Reveal Work Behind Payroll Expose,”
Editor and Publisher, August 27, 1949, 24.
25. Cited in the
Post-Dispatch Pulitzer entry, 1950.
27. “Theodore C. Link Dies; Investigative Reporter,”
Post-Dispatch, February 14, 1974.
28. The
Post-Dispatch Pulitzer entry, 1952.
1. Ray Erwin, “2 Weeklies Win Pulitzer Prizes for Anti-KKK War,”
Editor and Publisher, May 9, 1953, 9.
2. Associated Press account, May 5, 1943.
4. Discussed in Robert Keeler,
Newsday: A Candid History of the Respectable Tabloid (New York: Arbor House/Morrow, 1990), 46–50.
5. Ibid., 196–198. Because individual reporters were rarely discussed in connection with the Public Service Prize, there is no good way to document this.
6. Ibid., 199–203, is the source for most information on Greene.
7. Bob Greene, telephone interview with author, March 3, 2006.
8. Keeler,
Newsday: A Candid History, 208.
9. Ray Erwin, “3 Pulitzer Prizes Awarded for Exclusive Exposes: Newsday Wins Gold Medal for Track and Labor Racket Stories,”
Editor and Publisher, May 9, 1954, 13.
11. Ray Erwin, “Pulitzer Prizes Awarded for the Little Rock Story,”
Editor and Publisher, May 10, 1958, 11. Also the
Arkansas Gazette Pulitzer entry, 1958.
12. Gene Roberts, interview with author, November 30, 2005.
13. The
Gazette Pulitzer entry; also quoted in John Hohenberg,
The Pulitzer Prize Story (New York: Columbia University Press, 1959), 102. The chapter’s initial September 9
Arkansas Gazette commentary by Ashmore is discussed in Hohenberg,
The Pulitzer Prize Story, 101.
14. Pulitzer jury report, 1958.
18. Lois Wille, telephone interview with author, April 3, 2006. Also the
Chicago Daily News Pulitzer entry, 1957, and “Pulitzer Prizes Awarded For Crusades, Enterprise,”
Editor and Publisher, May 11, 1963, 12.
20. Ray Erwin, “St. Petersburg Times Wins Public Service Pulitzer,”
Editor and Publisher, May 9, 1964, 12; also Cortland Anderson, “Gold Medal Stories Save Florida Taxpayers Millions,” and Robert Sherrill, “Tipsters Whisper Secrets, and He ROARS,”
Editor and Publisher, 13.
24. William F. Thomas, interview with author, May 28, 2005.
25. The
Los Angeles Times Pulitzer entry, 1969. Other accounts of coverage are in
Editor and Publisher, May 10, 1969, 9;
Los Angeles Times, May 6, 1969, 1.
15. Secret Papers, Secret Reporting, 1972: The Pentagon Papers and the Times
1. Reston comments opening the chapter quoted in John Hohenberg,
The Pulitzer Prizes: A History of the Awards in Books, Drama, Music, and Journalism Based on the Private Files Over Six Decades (New York: Columbia University Press, 1974), 293.
2. Harrison E. Salisbury,
Without Fear or Favor: An Uncompromising Look at the New York Times (New York: Ballantine, 1980), 230.
3. Butterfield, telephone interview with author, March 11, 2006.
4. Ben Bradlee,
A Good Life: Newspapering and Other Adventures (New York: Touchstone, 1995), 310.
5. Salisbury,
Without Fear or Favor, 166–167.
6. Ibid., 47–93. Salisbury’s account takes the reader through Daniel Ellsberg’s process in making Sheehan the outlet for the Pentagon Papers.
7. Salisbury,
Without Fear or Favor, 122.
9. Ibid., 127–133, reviews the William Bayard Hale interview with Kaiser Wilhelm, described in chapter 10 of this volume. The Bay of Pigs precedent is discussed at 148–164.
11. Floyd Abrams,
Speaking Freely: Trials of the First Amendment (New York: Viking, 2005), 12.
12. Butterfield, interview.
13. From the
Times Pulitzer entry, 1972.
14. John Lynch, Vanderbilt University Television News Archive, Nashville, Tennessee, e-mail to author, April 17, 2006.
15. Salisbury,
Without Fear or Favor, 231–247, has detailed speculation about Nixon’s reaction.
16. Abrams,
Speaking Freely, 12. Abrams cites a number of books describing the Nixon administration reaction to the Pentagon Papers, including David Rudenstine’s
The Day the Presses Stopped; Richard Reeves’s
President Nixon: Alone in the White House; and John Prados and Margaret Pratt Parker’s
Inside the Pentagon Papers, citing transcripts of telephone conversations between Nixon and aides.
17. Salisbury,
Without Fear or Favor, 240–247.
18. Abrams,
Speaking Freely, 17–18.
19. Bradlee,
A Good Life, 313–317.
20. Butterfield, interview.
21. Abrams,
Speaking Freely, 30–31.
24. John Hohenberg,
The Pulitzer Prize Story II, 1959–1980 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1980), 155.
25. Pulitzer jury report, March 10, 1972; also Hohenberg,
The Pulitzer Prizes, 308.
26. Daniel Pfaff,
No Ordinary Joe: A Life of Joseph Pulitzer III (Columbia, Mo.: University of Missouri Press, 2005), 288. Pfaff cites a January 24, 1972, note from Ben Bradlee in the papers of Pulitzer III.
27. Hohenberg,
The Pulitzer Prize Story II, 157.
28. Bradlee,
A Good Life, 323.
16. All the Editor’s Men, 1973: Watergate and the Post
1. Bob Woodward, interview with author, October 12, 2005.
4. Woodward, interview with author.
5. Kept in Rare Manuscripts Room, Butler Library, Columbia University, New York.
7. Howard Simons, Washington Post 1973 Pulitzer nominating letter, January 29, 1973.
9. The accounts of the
Post’s Watergate coverage here are largely from Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward,
All the President’
s Men (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1974); and Bradlee,
A Good Life: Newspapering and Other Adventures (New York: Touchstone, 1995), 324–384, supplemented by Woodward and Bradlee interviews with the author. When articles are quoted, the source is the
Post’s Pulitzer entry, 1973.
11. Katharine Graham,
Personal History (New York: Random House, 1997), 461.
17. Anthony Marro, telephone interview with author. His evaluation of key Watergate stories covered in March 2005 University of Texas seminar.
19. Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, comments at American Society of News Editors, “The Digital Age.”
20. Bernstein and Woodward,
All the President’
s Men, 170–198.
22. Bradlee,
A Good Life, 341. For his discussion of the reporting error, in which “our Watergate machine blew a fuse,” see 337–343.
23. From the
Post Pulitzer Prize entries, 1973.
24. The best accounts of how the
Post’s Watergate entry was received in the Pulitzer competition are in three John Hohenberg works:
The Pulitzer Prize Story II: 1959–1980 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1980), 208–237;
The Pulitzer Prizes: A History of the Awards in Books, Drama, Music, and Journalism Based on the Private Files Over Six Decades (New York: Columbia University Press, 1974), 313–38; and
The Pulitzer Diaries: Inside America’s Greatest Prize (Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1997), 265–272.
25. Pulitzer jury report, March 8, 1973, provided by Pulitzer Prize office.
27. Hohenberg,
The Pulitzer Prize Story II, 223.
28. Hohenberg,
The Pulitzer Prizes, 315.
29. Bradlee, interview. A discussion that falls just short of that declaration is in
A Good Life, 367–368.
31. Seymour Topping, telephone interview with author, March 11, 2006.
33. Topping, telephone interview.
34. Cited in Graham,
Personal History, 404.
35. American Society of News Editors, “The Digital Age.”
38. Anthony Marro, University of Texas seminar transcript, March 23, 2005.
40. Other works examining the legacy in journalism of the
Post’s Watergate coverage include Michael Schudson,
Watergate in American Memory: How We Remember, Forget, and Reconstruct the Past (New York: Basic Books, 1992); Jon Marshall,
Watergate’s Legacy and the Press; The Investigative Impulse (Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press, 2011); and Alicia C. Shepard,
Woodward and Bernstein: Life in the Shadow of Watergate (Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley, 2007).
17. In Watergate’s Shadow, 1970–1978: Newsday, the Inquirer, and Davids vs. Goliaths
1. Michael Schudson,
Watergate in American Memory: How We Remember, Forget, and Reconstruct the Past (New York: Basic Books, 1992), 110.
2. Jon Marshall,
Watergate’s Legacy and the Press (Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press, 2011), 43.
3. Robert F. Keeler,
Newsday: A Candid History of the Respectable Tabloid (New York: Arbor House/Morrow, 1990), 192–209.
6. Bob Greene, telephone interview with author, March 3, 2006.
8. Geraldine Shanahan, interview with author, November 29, 2005.
9. Marro, telephone interview.
10. Keeler,
Newsday: A Candid History, 430.
11. Marro provided a transcript of
Newsday anniversary party, September 26, 2002.
12. Pulitzer jury report, 1970.
13. Greene, telephone interview; story also told in Keeler,
Newsday: A Candid History, 431.
15. Greene, telephone interview; story also told in Keeler,
Newsday: A Candid History, 431.
16. Marro, telephone interview.
17. Keeler,
Newsday: A Candid History, 511.
18. Marro, telephone interview.
20. Pulitzer jury report, 1974.
24. Howard Weaver, interview with author, November 15, 2005. The section is based largely on his account, along with the 1976
Anchorage Daily News Pulitzer entry and jury report.
25.
Anchorage Daily News, December 20, 1975, from Pulitzer entry.
27. Joe Murray, telephone interview with author, March 3, 2006. Based on the accounts of Murray and Ken Herman, with material from the
Lufkin News’s 1977 Pulitzer entry. A 2001 report titled “A Case Study Analysis and Quarter-Century Perspective of a Story that Won the Pulitzer Prize,” by Dr. Wanda Mouton, Department of Communication, Stephen F. Austin State University, Nacogdoches, Texas, contains additional detail.
28. Ken Herman, telephone interview with author, March 7, 2006.
29.
Lufkin News, March 16, 1976, in Pulitzer entry, 1977.
30.
Lufkin News, April 4, 1976.
32. Harrison Salisbury quoted in
Columbia Journalism Review (May/June 2003).
33. Gene Roberts, interview with author, November 30, 2005.
34. Steve Lovelady, interview with author, November 29, 2005.
35. Bill Marimow, telephone interview with author, March 13, 2006.
36. Gene Roberts, interview.
37. The
Inquirer series ran from April 24 to 27, from Pulitzer entry, 1978.
18. Mightier Than the Snake, 1979: The Point Reyes Light on Synanon
1. While it may surprise that this is a New Age quotation, and not much older,
Morrow’
s International Dictionary of Contemporary Quotations (New York: William Morrow, 1982) is among the references crediting Dederich as its originator, circa 1969.
2. Dave Mitchell, Cathy Mitchell, and Richard Ofshe,
The Light on Synanon: How a Country Weekly Exposed a Corporate Cult—
and Won the Pulitzer Prize (New York: Seaview Books, 1980), 4, 22. (Initial chapter quote on page 280.)
3. Dave Mitchell, interview with author, November 18, 2005.
4. Paul Morantz, telephone interview with author, October 25, 2005.
5.
Point Reyes Light, September 28, 1978, from Pulitzer entry.
6. Mitchell, Mitchell, and Ofshe,
The Light on Synanon, 181.
8. Paul Morantz, telephone interview. Also follow-up telephone interview, May 24, 2014.
9. Dave Mitchell, interview.
10. Cathy Mitchell, telephone interview with author, December 20, 2005.
11. Tess Elliot, telephone interview with author, May 22, 2014.
12. Paul Morantz with Hal Lancaster,
Escape: My Lifelong War Against Cults (Pacific Palisades, Calif.: Cresta Publications, 2013).
1. Howard Weaver, interview with author.
2. Richard A. Oppel, telephone interview by author, April 3, 2006. This section is based largely on the
Charlotte Observer 1981 Pulitzer entry.
3. The letter from the textile industry executive was included by Oppel in the
Observer’s cover letter for its 1981 Pulitzer Prize entry.
5. Charles Shepard, in Kendall J. Wills,
The Pulitzer Prizes 1987 (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1988), 21–24. Wills put together four books for Simon and Schuster from 1988 to 1991, each a compendium of Pulitzer-winning journalism for the prior year.
6. Richard Oppel, telephone interview.
8. Mark J. Thompson, telephone interview with author, March 27, 2006. The section is also based on the
Star-Telegram Pulitzer entry, 1985.
10. Andrew Schneider, telephone interview with author, April 2, 2006. The section also reflects material from the
Pittsburgh Press Pulitzer entry for 1986, along with another account, in Wills,
The Pulitzer Prizes 1987, written by Matthew Brelis and Schneider, 22–25.
12. John Hohenberg,
The Pulitzer Diaries: Inside America’
s Greatest Prize (Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1997), 22. Discussions of several attempts to expand the reach of the Pulitzer Prize are also found in Joseph Pulitzer II, Collected Papers, Library of Congress. Daniel W. Pfaff’s biographies of both Pulitzer II and Pulitzer III give additional detail in their relationship.
13. In David Shaw,
Press Watch: A Provocative Look at How Newspapers Report the News (New York: Macmillan, 1984); the chapter 7 discussion of the prizes, 178–214, is based on a
Los Angeles Times series on the Pulitzers.
14. Hohenberg,
The Pulitzer Prize Story II, 151–158.
17. Roberts, interview with author.
18. Jack Fuller, telephone interview with author, March 23, 2006.
19. Michael Gartner, telephone interview with author.
1. J. Douglas Bates,
The Pulitzer Prize: The Inside Story of America’s Most Prestigious Award (New York: Birch Lane Press, 1991), especially 209–211, focuses on the Pulitzer process for 1990.
2. Also following the year 1990 in Pulitzers was Kendall J. Wills,
The Pulitzer Prizes 1990 (New York: Simon and Schuster), 2–6, offering the basis for much of this section.
5. Gilbert Gaul, interview with author, October 13, 2005. See also Wills,
The Pulitzer Prizes 1990, 31–33.
6. Geneva Overholser, interview with author, December 1, 2005. This account balances the views of editor Overholser and reporter Jane Schorer. References to articles are from the
Register’s 1991 Pulitzer entry.
7. Jane Schorer Meisner, telephone interview with author, April 3, 2006.
9. Michael Gartner, telephone interview with author.
11. Tom Knudson, interview with author, November 16, 2005.
12. Pulitzer jury report, 1992.
14. Account based largely on the
Miami Herald Pulitzer entry, 1992.
15. Pete Weitzel, telephone interview with author, April 4, 2006.
16. Pulitzer Public Service jury report, 1993.
18. Melanie Sill, telephone interview with author, April 4, 2006. Also
Editor and Publisher, “80th Annual Pulitzer Prizes,” April 13, 1996, 9.
21. Mark Schleifstein, interview with author, April 6, 2006. Also the
Times-Picayune Pulitzer entry, 1997.
22 Peter Kovacs, interview with author, May 30, 2006.
23. Jim Amoss, interview with author, May 30, 2006.
24. Public Service jury report, 1998.
27. Mike Maidenberg, telephone interview with author, April 11, 2006.
30. Maidenberg, telephone interview.
31. Mike Jacobs, “Four Lessons of Newspapering … Come Hell and High Water,”
Poynter, June 18, 2003,
http://www.Poynter.org, June 18, 2003, from American Society of Newspaper Editors speech.
32. Maidenberg, telephone interview.
33. James Naughton, e-mail to author, April 4, 2006.
21. The Post Rings Twice, 1999–2001: Police Shootings and Shameful Homes
1. Jeffrey M. Leen, interview with author, October 12, 2005.
2. Bob Woodward, interview with author.
3. The December 23, 1997, memo was summarized in a later recap of the
Post police project, prepared in December 1998 by Rick Atkinson and others. That recap, titled “Deadly Force: The Making of The Post’s Police Project,” was provided to the author by Jeff Leen.
5. Sari Horwitz, interview with author, October 12, 2005.
6. David Jackson comments quoted in December 1998 Atkinson memo.
10. The
Washington Post Pulitzer entry, 2000.
11. Katherine Boo, interview with author, October 12, 2005.
15. Leen, interview. Coll, who left the
Post in 2005, joined the Pulitzer board in 2012. Coll became dean of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in July 2013. On the Columbia website at
http://www.journalism.columbia.edu/news/797.
Afterword: A New Voice of the South
2. Andrew Knapp, “Post and Courier Wins Pulitzer for Domestic Abuse Series,”
Post and Courier, April 20, 2015,
http://www.postandcourier.com/article/20150420/PC16/150429937/1005/post-and-courier-wins-pulitzer-prize. Also discussed in Harris, “Post and Courier’s Ninety-Year Pulitzer Drought Ends with Public Service Gold,” Poynter.org, April 21, 2015,
http://www.poynter.org/news/mediawire/338069/post-and-couriers-90-year-pulitzer-drought-ends-with-public-service-gold/.
3. Pierre Manigault, interview with author, May 30, 2015.
4. P. J. Browning, telephone interview with author, June 4, 2015.
6. Mitch Pugh, Doug Pardue, and Glenn Smith, interview with author, May 30, 2015.
7. Pardue, telephone interview with author, April 20, 2015.
11. Scott Kraft, e-mail to author, June 3, 2015. An interview with juror Josh Meyer of Northwestern University appears in Harris, “Post and Courier’s Ninety-Year Pulitzer Drought Ends with Public Service Gold,” Poynter.org; Josh Meyer, e-mail to author, April 21, 2015. The seven jury members are listed here:
http://www.pulitzer.org/jurors/2015-Public-Service.
Appendix: Pulitzer Gold Nuggets
1. Links to all the year’s Pulitzer Prizes for these four years and for all other years mentioned in this appendix can be found by searching the year at
http://www.pulitzer.org/awards.
2. E. J. Kahn Jr.,
The World of Swope: A Biography of Herbert Bayard Swope (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1965).
3. Case discussed in John Hohenberg,
The Pulitzer Prize Story (New York: Columbia University Press, 1959), 69–70.
4. “Iowa Daily’s Expose Stirred State: Prize Campaign Against Graft Brought Resignations, One Trial, Many Indictments, Although Latter Were Dismissed on a Technicality,”
Editor and Publisher, May 9, 1936, 5.
5. Discussed in “‘All-Star Primary’ Wins Pulitzer Medal,”
Editor and Publisher, May 7, 1949, 7.
6. Hohenberg,
The Pulitzer Prize Story, 45.
7. Ibid., 66–68. Also Ray Erwin, “Pulitzer Gold Medal Given for Exposure of Fund Fraud,”
Editor and Publisher, May 11, 1957, 13.
8. Ray Erwin, “Utica Papers Win Pulitzer Medal for Crime Exposure,”
Editor and Publisher, May 12, 1958, 12.
9. Gene Sherman, “Prize-Winning Series Background Described,”
Los Angeles Times, May 3, 1960. Also Ray Erwin, “Exposes of Civic Sins Win 5 Pulitzer Prizes,”
Editor and Publisher, May 7, 1960, 15.
10. Thomas H. Thompson, “First Failure, Then Sweeping Victory in Gold Medal Expose,”
Editor and Publisher, May 6, 1961, 59.
11. Ray Erwin, “Crusades Versus Corruption & Collusion Win Pulitzers,”
Editor and Publisher, May 12, 1962, 11–12.
12. Ray Erwin, “Hutchinson News Wins Public Service ‘Pulitzer,’”
Editor and Publisher, May 8, 1965, 12.
13. See “Boston Globe Wins The Pulitzer Prize,”
Boston Globe, May 3, 1966, 1. Also Ray Erwin, “Boston Globe Wins Pulitzer Gold Medal,”
Editor and Publisher, May 7, 1966, 13.
14. Ray Erwin, “Louisville and Milwaukee Win Pulitzer Gold Medals,”
Editor and Publisher, May 6, 1967, 11.
15. Newton H. Fulbright, “Crusade for Indians Wins Pulitzer Medal,”
Editor and Publisher, May 11, 1968, 11.
16. Frank V. Tursi,
The Winston-Salem Journal: Magnolia Trees and Pulitzer Prizes (Winston-Salem, N.C.: John F. Blair and Winston-Salem Journal, 1996), 191–195. Also “Pulitzers Again Applaud Crusade for Environment,”
Editor and Publisher, May 8, 1971, 10.
17. “Globe Wins Pulitzer Gold Medal for Hub School Busing Coverage,”
Boston Globe, May 5, 1975, 1; Hohenberg,
The Pulitzer Prize Story II, 287; stories excerpted, 286–291.
18. Lenora Williamson, “Pulitzer for Public Service Won by Gannett News,”
Editor and Publisher, April 19, 1980, 11.
19. Sydney Freedberg, telephone interview with author, March 29, 2006; Lenora Williamson, “Detroit News Wins Pulitzer Gold Medal,”
Editor and Publisher, April 17, 1982. Story also references from the
Detroit News Pulitzer entry.
20. Lenora Williamson, “Jackson Clarion-Ledger Tops Pulitzers,”
Editor and Publisher, April 23, 1983, 16–17.
21. William F. Thomas, telephone interview with author, March 23, 2003; David Shaw, “Times Wins 2 Pulitzers,”
Los Angeles Times, April 17, 1984; Lenora Williamson, “L.A. Times Wins Pulitzer Prize for Public Service,”
Editor and Publisher, April 21, 1984.
22. Lenora Williamson, “Denver Post Wins the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service with In-Depth Study of Missing Children Statistics,”
Editor and Publisher, April 26, 1986, 16.
23. Tony Case, “78th Annual Pulitzer Prizes,”
Editor and Publisher, April 16, 1994, 9–10.
25. Tony Case and Dorothy Giobbe, “Tiny Virgin Island Daily News Wins for Public Service,”
Editor and Publisher, April 22, 1995, 17–8; also “After the Pulitzers,” November 4, 1995, and Ryan Frank, “Three Tips for Project Reporting” on a talk byMelvin Claxton at the 2002 National Writers Workshop, Portland, Oregon.
28. Sandy Rowe, Julie Sullivan, and Richard Read interviews with author, November 16, 2006; Richard Read, “The Oregonian Investigates Mistreatment of Foreigners,”
Nieman Reports (Winter 2001): 27–29.