The Pulitzer Prizes, awarded by Columbia University since 1917, coincided this year with the most turbulent moment in the recent history of this institution due to the pro-Palestine protests.
With the war in Ukraine on hold, the war between Israel and Hamas gave rise to a “special citation” to reporters covering that tragedy, in recognition of the “brave work of journalists and media employees who work in horrible conditions.” This distinction underscored “the extraordinary number of reporters who have died during the efforts of Palestinians and humanitarian workers in Gaza.”
This conflict also gave The New York Times the award for international reporting, a medium that has received much criticism from progressive sectors for its supposed bias towards Israel.
This newspaper also obtained distinctions for investigation (on labor exploitation and the general use of migrant children) and for descriptive journalism (mental illnesses).
These three awards placed him in the lead, tied with The Washington Post, which accumulated the awards for commentary, editorial and national reporting. This work was dedicated to the massive presence of the AR-15, a semi-automatic rifle that imitates the military one, in most massacres in the United States.
This category became the only one in which there were two winners. The team of journalists from the Reuters agency was also honored with the national award for their investigation into Elon Musk’s manufacturing empire. Reuters also added the photography distinction for breaking news or the last minute in the Gaza conflict. In the in-depth photography section, it was the Associated Press that took this distinction for its documented work regarding the migratory flow in South America in transit to the promised land in the United States.
One of the most highly regarded awards, the local reporting award, went to California’s Lookout Santa Cruz, a digital outlet barely two years old that provided exceptional coverage of the deadly floods that devastated the state.
Another online medium like ProPublica won the Pulitzer for public service, for revealing and denouncing how Supreme Court judges receive gifts from millionaires.
