(AFP) – Coverage of the Trump administration dominated the Pulitzer Prizes announced Monday as the prize committee unleashed a searing attack on US President Donald Trump’s attempts to limit freedom of reporting. “We stand for civil discourse and against censorship,” said Pulitzer Administrator Marjorie Miller ahead of the announcements, which honored coverage of Trump’s immigration crackdown and his enrichment of his allies.
“Unfortunately, this bears repeating now, as media access to the White House and Pentagon is restricted, free speech is challenged in the streets, and the President of the United States has filed lawsuits for billions of dollars for defamation and malice against multiple print and broadcast media.” The prestigious Pulitzer Prize for public service journalism was awarded to the Washington Post for its in-depth coverage of Trump’s “chaotic” efforts to reconstruct the US federal bureaucracy. “In rich detail,” the coverage explored “the human impacts of the cuts and the consequences for the country,” Miller said.
The investigative reporting prize went to The New York Times for its series exposing how Trump “exploited the money-making opportunities that come with power, enriching his family and allies.” Its reporting highlighted how Trump’s allies and families benefited from ties with wealthy Gulf monarchies and involvement in cryptocurrency. In the local reporting category, The Chicago Tribune was honored for its “vivid, muscular prose” reporting how federal immigration agents subjected the midwestern city to a “siege-like incursion” as part of Trump’s crackdown on undocumented migrants. A second prize in that category went to the Connecticut Mirror and ProPublica for an investigation into unscrupulous vehicle towing practices.
Miami Herald reporter Julie K. Brown received a special citation for her “groundbreaking reporting” in 2017 and 2018 of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. “Her ‘Perversion of Justice’ series, published nearly a decade ago, revealed how prosecutors shielded Epstein from federal sex trafficking charges when he was first accused of abusing young women,” Miller said.
The New York Times won the breaking news photography category for Saher Alghorra’s “haunting, sensitive” images showing the “devastation and starvation in Gaza resulting from the war with Israel.” The Reuters news agency received the nod in the national reporting category for its coverage of Trump’s use of executive power and his supporters’ influence to “exact vengeance on his foes.” The Associated Press news agency was honored in the international reporting category for its reports on how the US government allowed its country’s businesses to sell surveillance technology to China.
The Pulitzer for explanatory reporting went to the San Francisco Chronicle for its series on the aftermath of the LA fires, showing how insurers undervalued properties lost to fires, denied homeowner claims, and hampered their efforts to rebuild. The Reuters news agency scooped the Pulitzer for beat reporting, honoring what the committee called “inventive and revelatory” coverage of how Meta knowingly exposed users to scams and AI manipulation.
The Pulitzer for breaking news reporting was awarded to the Minnesota Star Tribune for its coverage of a shooting in a back-to-school mass at a Catholic school that left two children dead and 17 wounded. The coverage highlighted the prevalence of gun violence in the United States and the limitations of efforts to combat it.
The Pulitzer for feature writing went to Aaron Parsley of Texas Monthly for his account of the Central Texas floods that destroyed his home and killed his nephew. ‘Liberation,’ by Bess Wohl won in the drama category, while the history Pulitzer went to ‘We the People’ by Jill Lepore, and the biography prize was awarded to ‘Pride and Pleasure,’ by Amanda Vaill. The Pulitzer Prizes are overseen by Columbia University.
© 2024 AFP
