Pulitzer Prizes: Los Angeles Times honored for exposing scandal
The Los Angeles Times has been awarded this year's Pulitzer Prize. This time in the top category "Service to the Public". The online news portal Pro Publica was honored once again.
The editors of the Los Angeles Times received the journalism prize for uncovering a corruption scandal. In the Californian town of Bell, city officials had helped themselves to taxpayers' money and paid each other enormous salaries. The newspaper's reports culminated in arrests and political reforms. The paper also received the journalism prize for Photo reportsin this case about the victims of gang warfare.
The prize in the "investigative journalism" category went to a journalist from the Sarasota Herald Tribune. According to a statement from the news agency SDA, she had uncovered dubious practices by home insurers in Florida.
Traditionally, many awards have gone to East Coast newspapers, such as the Boston Globe for its art criticism, the Wall Street Journal for its editorials on healthcare reform and the Washington Post, honored only once this time, for its Picture series of the earthquake in Haiti.
The New York Times (NYT) also received two awards. One was awarded to two Moscow correspondents for their reportage on the judicial system in Russia. His comments on the budget crisis in the USA earned a NYT employee the second prize for the newspaper.
Online news portal honored for the second time
The New York online news portal Pro Publica was honored this year for its research into the causes of the financial crisis. Journalists Jesse Eisinger and Jake Bernstein received the award in the "National Reportage" category for a series of articles on how dubious practices on Wall Street contributed to the financial crisis.
Online media have only been considered for two years. The research association, which was founded in 2008, was already honored last year - but then for an article that also appeared in the New York Times Magazine. This year, for the first time, an article was honored that did not also appear in print.
A prestigious media prize
The Pulitzer Prizes are the highest media prizes in the USA and are among the most important awards for journalists, writers and composers. They are awarded in 21 categories and are endowed with 10,000 dollars each. The award was founded by journalist and publisher Joseph Pulitzer (1847 to 1911) and is presented by Columbia University in New York.
Among the winners: Pulitzer.org.
