Wednesday, April 19, 2006

2006 Pulitzer Prizes

The The Pulitzer Prizes for 2006 were announced Monday. There are two divisions of awards, a set for Journalism and a set for Letters and Drama. if you download the pdf you can see the list of winners and other finalists with descriptions of what they won for.

The public service and breaking news categories were won by the Sun Herald in Biloxi and the Times-Picayune in New Orleans for their Katrina coverage. Makes sense, local papers shined during this disaster. Washington Post writers won awards for reporting on the Abramoff scandall, US government attempts to bring democracy to Yemen, US secret prisons, and fashion criticism. New York Times reporters won for reporting on NSA domestic spying, justice in China, and genocide in Darfur. Neither of these two leading papers were even finalists for their editorial content which matches my experiences reading them. Read them for news (with a critical eye) but not opinions.

In the Letters and Drama Prizes, I think the only book I knew was American Prometheus which won for Biography (of Robert Oppenheimer). There was no award for Drama this year, even though there were 3 finalists, sucks to be them. Special Citations went to Historian Edmund S. Morgan and Jazz legend Thelonious Monk "for a body of distinguished and innovative musical composition that has had a significant and enduring impact on the evolution of jazz." Gee seems a little late to me.

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