Pulitzer Prizes

It's been a great week for The Washington Post's Dana Priest. First, she was awarded her second Pulitzer Prize in three years (in collaboration with Anne Hull and photographer Michel du Cille) in the category of Public Service for a series about soldiers at Walter Reed Hospital.

Yesterday, Variety's Michael Fleming reported that the series has been optioned by HBO Films. According to Larry Lyttle, one of the executive producers of the project, "The film will be about how four ordinary people, who put their lives on the line for their country, came back injured and were then abused and ignored by the crown jewel of the military." The teleplay will be written by Ron Nyswaner, who has been nominated for an Oscar for his screenplay for Philadelphia.

The New York Times under executive editor Bill Keller still has fewer Pulitzer victories to its credit than during the short-lived reign of his predecessor, Howell Raines.

Under Raines, who served approximately 21 months before resigning in 2003 in the wake of the Jayson Blair scandal, the paper's news pages published seven Pulitzer-winning entries.

In more than twice that span of time—53 Pulitzer-eligible months as executive editor—Keller has published six Pulitzer winners.  read more »

Yesterday, the Pulitzer Prize administrator, Sig Gissler, told a group of reporters, "The old cliché is that when you win a Pulitzer, the first line of your obituary has been written." Yes, but what if you win three?  read more »

A few more pieces on the Pulitzers from today ...

After winning the Pulitzer, do you get fried? What else is left to do? [Marketwatch]

Nick Denton writes that the Pulitzer is a "beloved relic" from another era, and the awards actually distract newspapers from their mission in the Internet age. [Gawker]

Here's what the Times newsroom looked like (look! there's David Carr! UPDATE: Nope, not him, Carr points out to a friend. How'd we do that?) [NYT]  read more »

Sig Gissler, the administrator of the Pulitzers, was just asked why there isn't a category for online publications. "We are keeping an eye on online journalism and I'm not saying it won't happen in the future," he said.

For a blogger, it's a steeper climb. "If they work for a newspaper they can submit now, but some of their work has to be published in a newspaper."  read more »

The Washington Post picked up six Pulitzer Prizes today, a record for the paper and one shy of the New York Times' record of seven back in 2002. Dana Priest of the Post nabbed her second Pulitzer in three years, winning the Public Service award along with Anne Hull and photographer Michel du Cille for exposing mistreatment of veterans at Walter Reed Hospital (She also won in 2006 for Beat Reporting on counterterrorism prisons).  read more »

We're moments away from the Pulitzer announcements, and we've sent our intern, Matt Townsend, to document the strictly no-frills scene at the Columbia Journalism School. Here's his account:

2:37: I'm at the Joseph Pulitzer World Room. There are two people in the seats so far.  read more »

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