The Pulitzer prize is named after infamous yellow journalist who, along with Pulitzer's competitor William Hearst, used fake news and sensationalism to make the country demand we go to war with Spain. This was after the USS Maine exploded off the coast of Spanish controlled Cuba (perhaps form boiler accident as many steamboats did back then).
It's always been a prize not about truth, but about who can most gin up the public over a nothing burger. That's why it's the most sought after prize among "journalists", most of whom got into the profession not to expose the truth, but to make a difference.