Stories On Trump, Finance Win Pulitzers

NEW YORK (AP) — The biggest U.S. news story of 2016 – the tumultuous presidential campaign – yielded a Pulitzer Prize on Monday for the Washington Post reporter who not only raised doubts about Donald Trump’s charitable giving but also revealed that the candidate had been recorded crudely bragging about grabbing women.

David A. Fahrenthold won the prize for national reporting, with the judges citing stories that examined Trump’s charitable foundation and called into question whether the real estate magnate was as generous as he claimed.

Fahrenthold’s submission also included his story about Trump’s raunchy behind-the-scenes comments during a 2005 taping of “Access Hollywood.” His talk about groping women’s genitals rocked the White House race and prompted a rare apology from the then-candidate.

In another election-related prize, Peggy Noonan of The Wall Street Journal won the Pulitzer for commentary for columns that “connected readers to the shared virtues of Americans during one of the nation’s most divisive political campaigns.”

The judges said Fahrenthold’s reporting “created a model for transparent journalism,” a model he built partly by using Twitter to publicize his efforts and let Trump see what he was doing. The president “can expect to see more of me on Twitter,” said Fahrenthold, now part of a team looking at Trump businesses.

American journalism’s most distinguished prizes also recognized work that shed light on international financial intrigue and held local officials accountable.

The New York Daily News and ProPublica won the Pulitzer in public service for uncovering how authorities used an obscure law, originally enacted to crack down on prostitution in Times Square in the 1970s, to evict hundreds of people, mostly poor minorities, from their homes.

“Thanks to this investigation, New York now sees how an extremely muscular law, combined with aggressive policing, combined with a lack of counsel, combined with lax judges produced damaging miscarriages of justice,” Daily News Editor in Chief Arthur Browne said. The Daily News reporter credited with most of the work was Sarah Ryley.

ProPublica’s managing editor, Robin Fields, said the project was “the type of collaboration that ProPublica had in mind” when the independent, nonprofit organization was launched nine years ago.

The New York Times’ staff received the international reporting award for its work on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s efforts to project Moscow’s power abroad. The award in feature writing went to the Times’ C.J. Chivers for a story about a Marine’s descent into violence after returning home from war.

Winners ranged from partnerships spanning hundreds of reporters to newspapers as small as The Storm Lake Times, a twice-weekly, 3,000-circulation family-owned paper in Iowa. Co-owner Art Cullen won the editorial writing award for challenging powerful corporate agricultural interests in the state.

Cullen said he was stunned by the win. “Nobody’s ever heard of us before,” he said with a laugh.

The prize for explanatory reporting went to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, McClatchy and the Miami Herald, which amassed a group of over 400 journalists to examine the leaked “Panama Papers” and expose the way that politicians, criminals and rich people stashed money in offshore accounts.

Meanwhile, the Herald’s Jim Morin won the award for editorial cartooning. He also won in 1996.

Eric Eyre of The Charleston Gazette-Mail received the investigative reporting prize for articles showing that drug wholesalers had shipped 780 million hydrocodone and oxycodone pills to West Virginia in six years, as 1,728 people fatally overdosed on the painkillers. Eyre obtained Drug Enforcement Administration records that leading drug wholesalers had fought in court to keep secret.

The staff of the East Bay Times in Oakland, California, received the breaking news reporting award for its coverage of a fire that killed 36 people at a warehouse party and for its follow-up reporting on how local officials hadn’t taken action that might have prevented it.

Executive Editor Neil Chase said the award was “tremendously humbling,” but “you have to pause and realize that 36 people died in the fire, and this story should have never happened.”

The staff of The Salt Lake Tribune received the local reporting award for its work on how Brigham Young University treated sexual assault victims. The series prompted the Mormon school to stop conducting honor code investigations into students who reported being sexually assaulted.

Hilton Als, a theater critic for The New Yorker, won in the criticism category. The judges praised how he strove to connect theater to the real-world, “shifting landscape of gender, sexuality and race.”

Freelancer Daniel Berehulak received the breaking news photography award for his images, published in The New York Times, documenting Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s crackdown on drug dealers and users. Berehulak won the feature photography Pulitzer in 2015 for his work on the Ebola outbreak in Africa.

This year’s feature photography winner was E. Jason Wambsgans of the Chicago Tribune, for his portrayal of a 10-year-old boy who had been shot.

Amid concern about fake news and the role of the media, “it’s just a very important time to try to help people see the importance of great journalism in their lives and in the democracy,” prize administrator Mike Pride said as the awards were announced at Columbia University .

Arts prizes are awarded in seven categories, including fiction, drama and music. Among the arts winners, Colson Whitehead took the fiction prize for “The Underground Railroad,” a novel that combined flights of imagination with the grimmest and most realistic detail of 19th-century slavery. Playwright Lynn Nottage won her second drama Pulitzer, for “Sweat.”

This is the 101st year of the contest, established by newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer. Public service award winners receive a gold medal; the other awards carry a prize of $15,000 each.

The Complete List Of Winners And Finalists

JOURNALISM

Public Service

New York Daily News and ProPublica for uncovering, primarily through the work of reporter Sarah Ryley, widespread abuse of eviction rules by the police to oust hundreds of people, most of them poor minorities.

Also nominated as finalists: The Chicago Tribune for reporting on prescription drug dispensing; and the Houston Chronicle for coverage of cost-cutting that denied tutoring, counseling and other special education services to families.

Breaking News Reporting

East Bay Times in Oakland, California, for coverage of the “Ghost Ship” fire, which killed 36 people at a warehouse party.

Also nominated as finalists: Dallas Morning News staff for coverage of a shooting that killed five police officers; and Orlando Sentinel staff for coverage of the mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub.

Investigative Reporting

Eric Eyre of the Charleston Gazette-Mail in West Virginia for reporting to expose the flood of opioids flowing into depressed West Virginia counties.

Also nominated as finalists: Michael J. Berens and Patricia Callahan of the Chicago Tribune for a series that documented neglect and abuse at Illinois group homes for developmentally disabled adults; and Steve Reilly of USA Today Network for an investigation that found 9,000 teachers who should have been flagged for past disciplinary offenses but were not.

Explanatory Reporting

International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, McClatchy and the Miami Herald for the Panama Papers, a series of stories using a collaboration of more than 300 reporters to expose the hidden infrastructure and global scale of offshore tax havens.

Nominated as finalists: Joan Garrett McClane and Joy Lukachick Smith of the Chattanooga Times Free Press for an examination of income inequality; staff of National Geographic, Washington, D.C., for an exploration of gender; and Julia Angwin, Jeff Larson, Surya Mattu, Lauren Kirchner and Terry Parris Jr. of ProPublica for an examination that made tangible the abstract world of algorithms.

Local Reporting

The Salt Lake Tribune staff for reports revealing the mistreatment of sexual assault victims at Brigham Young University.

Also nominated as finalists: Jenna Russell, Maria Cramer, Michael Rezendes, Todd Wallack and Scott Helman of The Boston Globe for a look at how the closing of psychiatric hospitals led to deadly encounters with police; and Michael Schwirtz, Michael Winerip and Robert Gebeloff of The New York Times for showing that minority inmates were punished at a far higher rate than white inmates.

National Reporting

David A. Fahrenthold of The Washington Post for reporting casting doubt on Donald Trump’s assertions of generosity toward charities.

Also nominated as finalists: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution staff for a series revealing the prevalence of sexual misconduct by doctors; and Renee Dudley, Steve Stecklow, Alexandra Harney and other members of the Reuters staff for uncovering a U.S. college admissions process corrupted by systematic cheating on standardized tests in Asia.

International Reporting

The New York Times staff for coverage of Vladimir Putin’s efforts to project Russia’s power abroad.

Also nominated as finalists: Chris Hamby of BuzzFeed News for an exposé of a dispute-settlement process used by multinational corporations; International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, McClatchy and the Miami Herald for the Panama Papers (moved to the Explanatory Reporting category); and The Wall Street Journal staff for coverage of Turkey.

Feature Writing

C.J. Chivers of The New York Times for a story on a Marine’s postwar descent into violence.

Also nominated as finalists: Adam Entous and Devlin Barrett of The Wall Street Journal for telling the story of one woman’s professional ruin after years of service to her country; and Eli Saslow of The Washington Post for chronicling the divided and restive body politic.

Commentary

Peggy Noonan of The Wall Street Journal for columns during one of the nation’s most divisive political campaigns.

Also nominated as finalists: Dahleen Glanton of the Chicago Tribune for pieces about politics and race in Chicago and beyond; and Trudy Rubin of the Philadelphia Media Network for commentary written in world hotspots.

Criticism

Hilton Als of The New Yorker for reviews that put stage dramas within a real-world cultural context.

Also nominated as finalists: Ty Burr of The Boston Globe for reviews of films and other cultural topics; and Laura Reiley of the Tampa Bay Times for lively restaurant reviews.

Editorial Writing

Art Cullen of The Storm Lake Times for editorials that challenged powerful corporate agricultural interests in Iowa.

Also nominated as finalists: Joe Holley of the Houston Chronicle for editorials on gun laws, gun culture and gun tragedies; and Fred Hiatt of The Washington Post for editorials about the U.S. presidential election.

Editorial Cartooning

Jim Morin of the Miami Herald for editorial cartoons that delivered sharp perspectives through flawless artistry, biting prose and crisp wit.

Also nominated as finalists in this category were: Jen Sorensen, freelance cartoonist, for a selection of work appearing in a variety of U.S. publications; and Steve Sack of the Star Tribune in Minnesota for work that took on the biggest issues of the year.

Breaking News Photography

Daniel Berehulak, freelance photographer, for images published in The New York Times showing the disregard for human life in the Philippines brought about by a government assault on drug dealers and users.

Also nominated as finalists: The Associated Press staff for images of the people of Iraq; and Jonathan Bachman, freelance photographer, for an image published by Reuters of one woman’s stand during a protest in Baton Rouge.

Feature Photography

E. Jason Wambsgans of the Chicago Tribune for a portrayal of a 10-year-old boy and his mother striving to put the boy’s life back together after he survived a shooting.

Also nominated as finalists: Jake May of The Flint Journal in Michigan for photographs from Flint’s contaminated-water crisis; and Katie Falkenberg of the Los Angeles Times for a photo essay from the front lines of Brazil’s war on Zika.

LETTERS, DRAMA AND MUSIC

Fiction

“The Underground Railroad,” by Colson Whitehead.

Also nominated as finalists: “Imagine Me Gone,” by Adam Haslett; and “The Sport of Kings,” by C.E. Morgan.

Drama

“Sweat,” by Lynn Nottag.

Also nominated as finalists: “The Wolves,” by Sarah DeLappe; and “A 24-Decade History of Popular Music,” by Taylor Mac.

History

“Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy,” by Heather Ann Thompson.

Also nominated as finalists: “Brothers at Arms: American Independence and the Men of France and Spain Who Saved It,” by Larrie D. Ferreiro; and “New England Bound: Slavery and Colonization in Early America,” by Wendy Warren.

Biography or Autobiography

“The Return,” by Hisham Matar.

Also nominated as finalists: “In the Darkroom,” by Susan Faludi; and “When Breath Becomes Air,” by the late Paul Kalanithi.

Poetry

“Olio,” by Tyehimba Jess.

Also nominated as finalists: “XX: Poems for the Twentieth Century,” by Campbell McGrath; and “Collected Poems: 1950-2012,” by the late Adrienne Rich.

General Nonfiction

“Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City,” by Matthew Desmond.

Also nominated as finalists: “In a Different Key: The Story of Autism,” by John Donvan and Caren Zucker; and “The Politics of Mourning: Death and Honor in Arlington National Cemetery,” by Micki McElya.

Music

“Angel’s Bone,” by Du Yun.

Also nominated as finalists: “Bound to the Bow,” by Ashley Fure; and “Ipsa Dixit,” by Kate Soper.

Associated Press writers Jessica Gresko in Washington and David Fischer in Miami contributed to this report, along with AP radio correspondent Warren Levinson.