Joe Pulitzer won his fortune selling his partisan news to a crowd of sycophants. He established his prize in an attempt to earn broader recognition. It has now come full circle: It is prized only among a crowd of sycophants. The Pulitzer Prise is now like the "Benevolent Protective Order of Dodo Birds" giving a prize to the BPODB member who can give the best dodo bird call. It means something to themselves, but no one else.
I think you're wrong about Pulitzer. He established his papers in a time much like today when journalism was becoming more competitive. In some ways, he was the equivalent of the bloggers -- a new voice who addressed an audience not served by the mainstream press. Was he partisan? Sure. But the World was a great paper in many respects.
I don't care for the Pulitzer Prizes as they are today. But why blame Joseph Pulitzer, a brilliant man and a patriot?
The Pulitzer has always been an agenda driven prize. JFK got one for a ghost written book that wasn't that good anyway.
The Nobel Peace Prize is the same having been awarded to Jimmy Carter, who helped start the present Islamist terror war, and Yassar Arafat, a terrorist himself.
Add that to the UN naming Lybia as head of the Human Rights wing of the UN and you see a leftist trend in all of them.