Pulitzers awarded for Katrina coverage
NEW YORK – The staffs of the Times-Picayune of New Orleans and the Sun Herald of south Mississippi captured Pulitzer Prizes for public service Monday for chronicling the catastrophic aftermath of Hurricane Katrina despite life-changing damage to their own homes and workplaces.
Tears flowed rather than champagne in the Times-Picayune newsroom, which the staff had to evacuate eight months earlier for about six weeks. At the Sun Herald, staff members cheered and fought back tears.
The Sun Herald won for its “valorous and comprehensive coverage … providing a lifeline for devastated readers,” and the Times-Picayune for its “heroic, multi-faceted coverage” to “serve an inundated city even after evacuation of the newspaper plant,” the Pulitzer citation said.
The Washington Post won four Pulitzers, the New York Times three and the Times-Picayune and the Rocky Mountain News each won two.
The Times-Picayune staff was awarded a second Pulitzer, for breaking news, for Katrina, and the Dallas Morning News was honored “for its vivid photographs depicting the chaos and pain” of the disaster.
Like their communities, the Sun Herald and the Times-Picayune took a beating from Katrina. Their buildings were damaged, advertisers and subscribers were displaced, and circulation dropped.
The Times-Picayune evacuated about 240 employees in newspaper delivery trucks as water from a levee breach rose around its plant. Many staffers saw the disaster unfold in their own neighborhoods.
The newsroom erupted in applause at the news of the Pulitzers, but there was no champagne.
“It was a national tragedy,” said Peter Kovacs, the Times-Picayune’s managing editor for news. “It would not be appropriate to have champagne because of the nature of the event.”
The Sun Herald toasted its prize with sweet tea and cookies because the paper does not allow alcohol on its property.
“We never missed a day of publication, and that’s a testament to everybody in this room,” said Ricky Mathews, president and publisher of the Sun Herald, whose coverage area includes hard-hit Gulfport and Biloxi, Miss. “We will arise from this terrible situation,” he added. “I think our best journalism is still ahead of us.”
Executive Editor Stan Tiner dedicated the Pulitzer to the residents “whose magnificent hearts and spirit moved us every day that we have been privileged to tell the story of their struggle and triumphs.”
At the Washington Post, Susan Schmidt, James V. Grimaldi and R. Jeffrey Smith won the investigative reporting Pulitzer for stories on the Jack Abramoff scandal; David Finkel won for explanatory reporting on the U.S. government’s attempt to bring democracy to Yemen; Dana Priest won the beat reporting category for stories on secret prisons and the government’s counterterrorism campaign; and Robin Givhan won for “her witty, closely observed essays that transform fashion criticism into cultural criticism.”
Rick Attig and Doug Bates of the Oregonian, of Portland, won for editorial writing focused on abuse inside a mental hospital. Bates wrote the 1991 book “The Pulitzer Prize: The Inside Story of America’s Most Prestigious Award.”