Journalism is my second career, so I’m still experiencing a lot of firsts. Monday was one of them: being in The Washington Post newsroom to watch the Pulitzer Prizes announcement. And it was thrilling to see so many colleagues celebrated as winners and finalists — eight total recognitions in all, an amazing haul.
The awesome moment when The Post’s Caroline Kitchener was announced as a finalist for national reporting, and then a few seconds later, as the winner.
Here’s the incredible collection of Post reporting that was honored by the Pulitzers on Monday, from winners like Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa for their book, “His Name Is George Floyd,” to finalists like Terry McCoy who was honored for his environmental reporting in Brazil.
But there was one shadow on a sunny day: the disappointment that Politico didn’t win its first-ever Pulitzer for reporting1, after Josh Gerstein and Alex Ward obtained the Supreme Court’s draft opinion to overturn Roe v. Wade.
I may not be on Twitter right now, but I know I’m not alone in feeling bummed for the Politico newsroom.
Of course, I have extreme bias; I’m a former Politico reporter, and I’m close to many folks who are still there.2 But Politico’s first story in May 2022 was a blockbuster — honestly, can you think of a bigger scoop from the past decade? — that no other newsroom could match; it was only confirmed when the Supreme Court issued its ruling to overturn abortion rights, which was almost word-for-word what Politico had revealed seven weeks earlier. And the scoop was followed by a series of pieces — from Peter S. Canellos, Hailey Fuchs and Heidi Przybyla, among others — about conflicts of interest at the high court and efforts to influence the justices.
The Pulitzers still recognized Politico’s series — being a finalist is a major accomplishment! — but I ache for my friends in the scrappy newsroom on the other side of the Potomac River.3
When friends who aren’t reporters ask me for one thing that’s surprising about the news industry, I’ve sometimes mentioned the journalism awards. It’s not like the Oscars… but it’s not not the Oscars. Just like the Golden Globes and other ceremonies that line the red carpet that leads to the Academy Awards, there are the parade of journalism prizes and predictions that lead up to the Pulitzers. Before news organizations submit nominations, there’s some strategic thinking about which rival outlets have entered which series in which categories. And there may not be FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION ads running in newspapers, but there are the stories that come in just under the Dec. 31 wire so they can be included in prize packages. (It my be uncouth to even say this much! But this is just an industry fact; I’ve done my own squeezing stories in before4 and will probably do so again.)
And like the Oscars, or really any industry honor, hinging your personal success to winning awards is a recipe for disappointment. Better to focus on the work and celebrate what comes — and kudos to Politico’s reporting team for publicly embracing that.
If Politico’s stories have a legacy, it may be that they pierced the veil of secrecy shrouding the Supreme Court. There’s clearly been a change in the tone of coverage. After decades of often-clubby stories, where reporters were even celebrated for being friends with the justices, true accountability reporting has arrived at the court, with a slew of recent stories about the justices’ conflicts — including in my own paper.
But don’t take it from me. Here’s what Josh Gerstein said when accepting a Polk Award on behalf of Politico last month.
Sometimes applying that level and intensity of scrutiny to an institution not used to receiving it can seem or feel unusual or even unprecedented. I can testify to that from some of the looks or maybe glares I've gotten from certain justices… [but] that just shows this sort of attention probably should have been brought to bear on the court even sooner.
Politico won its only Pulitzer in 2012, for Matt Wuerker’s terrific editorial cartooning.
One nice gesture by Politico: Editors invited Helena Bottemiller Evich and me along last month when their team won a Polk Award, because our own Polk ceremonies were canceled due to the pandemic.
In a world where scoops increasingly drive news cycles, and newsrooms rush to match each other’s exclusives, perhaps there should be special recognition for the scoops that are truly earth-shaking and unmatchable. But I’ll leave that debate to journalists who have been doing this longer than me.