The Los Angeles Times wins five Pulitzer Prizes

NEW YORK – The Los Angeles Times on Monday won five Pulitzer Prizes, journalism’s top award, for its coverage of last year’s California wildfires, a series on Wal-Mart’s economic role, offbeat car reviews, editorials on state government and photographs of the civil war in Liberia.

In a year in which the Iraq war dominated the news, only two prizes went to journalists covering the US-led invasion. The international reporting award went to Anthony Shadid of The Washington Post and the prize for breaking news photography went to David Leeson and Cheryl Diaz Meyer of The Dallas Morning News for their war photographs from Iraq.The New York Times, rocked last year by a scandal over false reporting that led to the resignation of the newspapers two top editors and an up-and-coming reporter, won the Pulitzer for public service reporting.The Times’s David Barstow and Lowell Bergman took the prestigious public service gold medal for their examination of death and injury among US workers caused by employers breaking basic work safety rules.The 88th annual Pulitzer awards were announced at New York’s Columbia University at a time of deep skepticism about the quality of American journalism.A recent PEW survey of 1 201 adults showed that only 36 per cent of Americans believe news outlets get the facts straight and 56 per cent say that reports are often inaccurate.Apart from the Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal was the only other multiple winner.Beat reporting honours went to Daniel Golden for stories on admission preferences given to children of alumni and donors at US universities.The Journal’s other award came for explanatory reporting by Kevin Helliker and Thomas M Burton for coverage of aneurysms.The staff of The Los Angeles Times was honoured for breaking news coverage of wildfires in southern California and for national reporting for its examination of how Wal-Mart became the largest company in the world.Dan Neil of the Los Angeles Times won in criticism for reviews of automobiles, blending technical expertise with offbeat humour and cultural observations.William Stall won for his editorials on California’s troubled state government.The feature photography award went to Carolyn Cole of The Los Angeles Times for a behind-the-scenes look at the effects of civil war in Liberia.The Pulitzer for investigative reporting went to Michael D Sallah, Mitch Weiss and Joe Mahr of The Blade in Toledo, Ohio, for their series on atrocities by Tiger Force, an elite US Army platoon during the Vietnam War.”This is the first Pulitzer this newspaper has ever won,” said Toledo Blade Executive Editor Ron Royhab.”They (the reporters) were celebratory, though they tempered that with what they uncovered,” he said, noting that the series showed, “American troops had committed atrocities against civilians in Vietnam.”The prize for commentary went to Leonard Pitts Jr of The Miami Herald for columns that spoke on often divisive issues.Matt Davies of The Journal News of White Plains, New York won for editorial cartooning.There was no Pulitzer awarded for feature writing for the first time since the category was established in 1979, as none of the finalists was voted a majority.Winners were selected from 1 423 newspaper submissions in a tumultuous year in journalism that also saw the national newspaper USA Today hit by a reporting scandal.- Nampa-ReutersThe international reporting award went to Anthony Shadid of The Washington Post and the prize for breaking news photography went to David Leeson and Cheryl Diaz Meyer of The Dallas Morning News for their war photographs from Iraq.The New York Times, rocked last year by a scandal over false reporting that led to the resignation of the newspapers two top editors and an up-and-coming reporter, won the Pulitzer for public service reporting.The Times’s David Barstow and Lowell Bergman took the prestigious public service gold medal for their examination of death and injury among US workers caused by employers breaking basic work safety rules.The 88th annual Pulitzer awards were announced at New York’s Columbia University at a time of deep skepticism about the quality of American journalism.A recent PEW survey of 1 201 adults showed that only 36 per cent of Americans believe news outlets get the facts straight and 56 per cent say that reports are often inaccurate.Apart from the Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal was the only other multiple winner.Beat reporting honours went to Daniel Golden for stories on admission preferences given to children of alumni and donors at US universities.The Journal’s other award came for explanatory reporting by Kevin Helliker and Thomas M Burton for coverage of aneurysms.The staff of The Los Angeles Times was honoured for breaking news coverage of wildfires in southern California and for national reporting for its examination of how Wal-Mart became the largest company in the world.Dan Neil of the Los Angeles Times won in criticism for reviews of automobiles, blending technical expertise with offbeat humour and cultural observations.William Stall won for his editorials on California’s troubled state government.The feature photography award went to Carolyn Cole of The Los Angeles Times for a behind-the-scenes look at the effects of civil war in Liberia.The Pulitzer for investigative reporting went to Michael D Sallah, Mitch Weiss and Joe Mahr of The Blade in Toledo, Ohio, for their series on atrocities by Tiger Force, an elite US Army platoon during the Vietnam War.”This is the first Pulitzer this newspaper has ever won,” said Toledo Blade Executive Editor Ron Royhab.”They (the reporters) were celebratory, though they tempered that with what they uncovered,” he said, noting that the series showed, “American troops had committed atrocities against civilians in Vietnam.”The prize for commentary went to Leonard Pitts Jr of The Miami Herald for columns that spoke on often divisive issues.Matt Davies of The Journal News of White Plains, New York won for editorial cartooning.There was no Pulitzer awarded for feature writing for the first time since the category was established in 1979, as none of the finalists was voted a majority.Winners were selected from 1 423 newspaper submissions in a tumultuous year in journalism that also saw the national newspaper USA Today hit by a reporting scandal.- Nampa-Reuters