'40 Bodies In Freezer' Paper Wins Pulitzer

Sweetness & Light ^ | April 17, 2006 | N/A

[Sam Hill]

Yep, the "newspaper" which gave us so many drama queen stories about Katrina that turned out to be woefully inaccurate wins the top prize in US journalism.

Kind of tells you something, doesn't it?

From Saudi-owned Reuters [excerpted]:

Jim Amoss (L), Editor of the Times-Picayune newspaper, congratulates publisher Ashton Phelps, Jr. after learning the paper won two Pulitzer Prizes in New Orleans April 17, 2006. The Times-Picayune of New Orleans and The Sun Herald of Biloxi, Mississippi, shared the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for excellent coverage of Hurricane Katrina. The Times-Picayune also won the Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Reporting for its coverage of Katrina.

Storm-hit newspapers win Pulitzer 

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Times-Picayune of New Orleans and The Sun Herald of Biloxi, Mississippi, shared the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for excellent coverage of Hurricane Katrina even as their staff and offices were hard-hit by the devastating storm, it was announced on Monday.

The Pulitzer Prize, the top U.S. journalism award, went to the Times-Picayune "for its heroic, multifaceted coverage of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath, making exceptional use of the newspaper's resources to serve an inundated city," said the statement by the Pulitzer Prize Board.

The Times-Picayune also won the Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Reporting for its coverage of Katrina. The 90th annual prizes were announced at Columbia University.

The New Orleans newspaper's offices and plant were flooded, and many of its staffers were left homeless when the levees broke during the August 29 storm. Much of the staff was forced to evacuate the city...

But the important things is that the Times-Picayune managed to get so many of their lies into the public's conscious. And that is what the Pulitzer Committee is surely rewarding.

Behold just one example of the Times-Picayune's Pulitzer Prize winning reportage:

Bodies found piled in freezer at Convention Center

By Brian Thevenot
Staff writer

Tuesday, September 06, 2005

Arkansas National Guardsman Mikel Brooks stepped through the food service entrance of the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center Monday, flipped on the light at the end of his machine gun, and started pointing out bodies.

"Don’t step in that blood - it’s contaminated," he said. "That one with his arm sticking up in the air, he’s an old man."

Then he shined the light on the smaller human figure under the white sheet next to the elderly man.

"That’s a kid," he said. "There’s another one in the freezer, a 7-year-old with her throat cut."

He moved on, walking quickly through the darkness, pulling his camouflage shirt to his face to screen out the overwhelming odor.

"There’s an old woman," he said, pointing to a wheelchair covered by a sheet. "I escorted her in myself. And that old man got bludgeoned to death," he said of the body lying on the floor next to the wheelchair.

Brooks and several other Guardsmen said they had seen between 30 and 40 more bodies in the Convention Center’s freezer. "It’s not on, but at least you can shut the door," said fellow Guardsman Phillip Thompson.

As even we here suspected at the time, it was all a lie. Like so many of their Katrina stories.

The front page of the Times-Picayune's September 2, 2005 edition.

But they did their masters' bidding, so they get the prize.

[Sam Hill]

We really can thank the T-P for so much of the misinformation that the public now believes about Katrina.

Congrats, guys!

[Sam Hill]

A "our one party media rewards its own" ping!

[Jaded]

They give Pulitzers for creative writing? Learn something new everyday.

[Borges]

They do for novels...

[Bahbah]

LOL. I've see a few of the awards. It emerges that there are some consistent criteria: be on the scene of something and then misinform about what is happening, or tell some really big lies about this Administration.

[Grampa Dave]

The Pulitzers have a new way of dispensing their prizes:

[Bahbah]

see=seen. I can conjugate, I just don't type well.

[Grampa Dave]

This prize based on wet dream lies, is another example of why the fish wraps in America are going down the drain.

[SittinYonder]

It's not the accuracy of the reporting, it's the seriousness of the charge.

[in hoc signo vinces]

Frog, do me a favor and post that picture of tripe on this thread...where it is more appropriate in regards to the propaganda rag that one the pulitzer...

[veronica]

Yeah, and that vile Wash. Post reporter Robin Givhans, who writes about "fashion" i.e. slams Laura Bush, won one as well. BARF...

[Dog]

I can conjugate

Is it legal to conjugate on the internet?

:-)

[Borges]

PUBLIC SERVICE
Two Prizes: The Sun Herald, Biloxi, Miss.

The Times-Picayune, New Orleans, La.

BREAKING NEWS REPORTING
Staff of The Times-Picayune, New Orleans, La.

INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING
Susan Schmidt, James V. Grimaldi and R. Jeffrey Smith of The Washington Post

EXPLANATORY REPORTING
David Finkel of The Washington Post

BEAT REPORTING
Dana Priest of The Washington Post

NATIONAL REPORTING
Two Prizes: James Risen and Eric Lichtblau of The New York Times

Staffs of The San Diego Union-Tribune and Copley News Service

INTERNATIONAL REPORTING
Joseph Kahn and Jim Yardley of The New York Times

FEATURE WRITING
Jim Sheeler of the Rocky Mountain News, Denver, Colo.

COMMENTARY
Nicholas D. Kristof of The New York Times

CRITICISM
Robin Givhan of The Washington Post

EDITORIAL WRITING
Rick Attig and Doug Bates of The Oregonian, Portland

EDITORIAL CARTOONING
Mike Luckovich of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

BREAKING NEWS PHOTOGRAPHY
Staff of The Dallas Morning News

FEATURE PHOTOGRAPHY
Todd Heisler of the Rocky Mountain News, Denver, Colo.






FICTION
March by Geraldine Brooks (Viking)

DRAMA
No Award

HISTORY
Polio: An American Story by David M. Oshinsky (Oxford University Press)

BIOGRAPHY
American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin (Alfred A. Knopf)

POETRY
Late Wife by Claudia Emerson (Louisiana State University Press)

GENERAL NON-FICTION
Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain's Gulag in Kenya by Caroline Elkins (Henry Holt)

MUSIC
Piano Concerto: 'Chiavi in Mano' by Yehudi Wyner (Associated Music Publishers)


SPECIAL CITATIONS
Edmund S. Morgan

Thelonious Monk

[Ben Mugged]

I must be gettin old..... I remember when winning a Pulitzer meant something.

[weegee]

Media Schadenfreude and Media Shenanigans PING

[weegee]

Media Schadenfreude and Media Shenanigans PING

[sionnsar]

There's no truth in the news, and no news in the truth...

[battlegearboat]

"It's a red salmon" - Mayor "Say Hey" Ray Nagin

[Bahbah]

Is it legal to conjugate on the internet?

LOL. I don't know. Could try it and see what happens, I guess. If it will improve my typing, I'd be willing to consider it.

[MissEdie]

They have really taken the prestige out of this award haven't they?