Pulitzer's Gold: Behind the Prize for Public Service Journalism

By Roy J. Harris Jr.

Book Overview

No journalism awards are awaited with as much anticipation as the Pulitzer Prizes. Andamong those Pulitzers, none is more revered than the Joseph Pulitzer Gold Medal.

Pulitzer's Gold is the first book to trace the ninety-year history of the coveted Pulitzer Prize for Public Service, awarded annually to a newspaper rather than to individuals, in the form of that Gold Medal. Exploring this service-journalism legacy, Roy Harris recalls dozens of "stories behind the stories," often allowing the journalists involved to share their own accounts. Harris takes his Gold Medal saga through two world wars, the Great Depression, the civil rights struggle, and the Vietnam era before bringing public service journalism into a twenty-first century that includes 9/11, a Catholic Church scandal, and corporate expos s. Pulitzer's Gold offers a new way of looking at journalism history and practice and a new lens through which to view America's own story.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0826217680
• ISBN13: 9780826217684
• Release Date: January 2008
• Publisher: University of Missouri
• Length: 488 Pages
• Weight: 1.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.3" x 1.2" x 6.1"
• Age Range: 18 to 10 years
• Grade Range: Postsecondary to Grade 5

Customer Reviews

The story behind the top stories

Pulitzer's Gold: Behind the Prize for Public-Service Journalism Given a choice between a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, Thomas Jefferson said he would choose the press. "Pulitzer's Gold" shows us why. This is the story behind the top newspaper stories of nearly a century. The Pulitzer Prize for Public-Service Journalism, the press equivalent of a Congressional Medal of Honor, has been awarded to newspapers that brought down a president, exposed a wide-ranging cover up of sexual abuse by Catholic priests, and delivered Katrina's stink to the world's doorstep. Author Roy J. Harris Jr. introduces readers to the man for whom the prizes are named. He examines the politics that have spawned conflict on the Pulitzer board. What no newshound can hope to resist, however, are the insider tales of newsroom drama that make up the bulk of his book. Harris shows us the career making decisions that led to Pulitzer Prize winning stories. Readers can feel the despair and elation that must have swept through The Charlotte Observer's newsroom as the story of Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker was snatched away when a major source recanted. The determined news staff pursued it until they discovered that church-funded hush money had been paid paid to silence the source. This and a wealth of other insider stories are what make Pulitzer's Gold a treasure. Never in any time in our nation's relatively short history has journalism been under greater threat of extinction than now. The threat comes from the Internet, but also from corporate conglomerates that care only for quarterly earnings statements. Pulitzer's Gold tells helps demonstrate the absolute necessity for the nation to sustain its journalists, who must have the support of newspaper owners and editors if they're to go on exposing the rot within our church, government, and businesses to the healing light of public knowledge.

A salute to "Pulitzer's Gold"

Roy Harris has done a thorough and masterful job telling the stories of how the most worthy of all Pulitzler Prizes have been won. Revealing how the winning newspapers deployed their resources, made courageous decisions and maintained journalism's highest ideals -- often against great odds and determined foes -- makes for inspiring reading. In this, perhaps the most challenging time ever to be practicing journalism, "Pulitzer's Gold" is a vivid reminder of the pivotal role of selfless, dedicated, professional journalism in America. Every journalist -- every citizen -- should read this book. These days, the role of a free press in the United States often is challenged, even ridiculed; Harris' book is a reminder of the critical importance of a free press in a democracy. We crown heroes easily in our culture; the people Harris writes about in Pulitzer's Gold really are heroic, and this book serves a great public service in elevating the work of journalism's finest.

A distinguished tribute to the journalists who labored to bring the truth to light and help make Ame

Former Wall Street Journal reporter Roy J. Harris Jr. presents Pulitzer's Gold: Behind the Prize for Public Service Journalism, an in-depth account of the ninety-year history of the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service, especially the most exalted prize of the Joseph Pulitzer Gold Medal. From accountings of the distinguished journalistic coverage that exposed sexual predators among Catholic priests, to the New York Times' role in helping the community cope after the September 11th attacks, to the Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein's uncovering of the Watergate scandal, to the Boston Post's revelation of swindling schemes hatched by Charles Ponzi and much more, Pulitzer's Gold takes the reader on a one-of-a-kind historical tour. A distinguished tribute to the journalists who labored to bring the truth to light and help make America better place to live, as well as a studious history of journalism's most prestigious award.

Pure Gold---Five Shining Stars for "Pulitizer's Gold"

Pure Gold---Five Shining Stars for "Pulitizer's Gold" "river run, past Eve and Adam's," so begins Joyce's "Finnegans Wake" that boisterous tale tracing through time and space the story of Anna Livia Plurabelle, the Liffey, and her people. As we reach the sea, the last words of the last chapter, ("A way a lone a last a loved a long the") return to the first. "Pulitzer's Gold" has that grand cycling sweep. Beginning in Chapter 1 with the heart-holding, eye-catching stories of the two 2006 prizes (for coverage of Hurricane Katrina by the Sun Herald and the Times Picayune), the book's close celebrates the 200l award to the Oregonian for uncovering U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service abuses. The 21 glorious chapters interweave three eternal golden braids, as intricate as any described by Hofstadter in Escher, Gödel, and Bach. These are (1) the story of the Pulitzer Prize itself, a story of growth, change, challenges, and evolution, (2) the individual stories of the newspapers, publishers, editors, and investigative reporters on whose walls shine the gold medals, and (3) the winning stories themselves, an archive of democracy in America, 1917 to the present. Written tautly, wittily, masterfully, Pulitzer's Gold represents in itself a monumental investigative expedition. Archival research, yes, but also years of meetings, interviews, conversations, verifying and expanding what was being discovered. As good a read as a novel, this is equally a work of scholarship, each chapter detailing the sources, and illuminated by a comprehensive appendix of all the Pulitzer journal awards. The bigger story is told through the individual stories, an approach that is endlessly fascinating. This is, in a way, the Vietnam Memorial Wall of courageous, high risk, public service journalism. The names and to a good extent the personalities whose best and brightest work may have gone into each Gold Medal award live again in this book. They are spoken of with the respect, honor, and appreciation that one outstanding journalist---Harris--- can give to another, a discerning, differentiating, discriminating honor someone outside of journalism probably could not fully catch with a guide such as Harris. Equally valuable is the mother lode of information most of us may not know about the prizes: for example, that the applicants self-nominate and have to prepare portfolios showing why the story they propose should be recognized. For example, that consequences---results, impacts, actions---are one of the three criteria for the award, anticipating by many years the expectation that claims for merit have to be backed up by evidence of good effects. Indeed, this book had its beginning in a presentation given by author Roy J. Harris Jr. on the one hundredth birthday of his father, Roy J. Harris Sr, of the St. Louis Post Dispatch. In this presentation, Harris Jr. not only honored his award-winning father but also reflected on the newspaper's then unique recor

A gripping ride into the heart of powerful journalism

Roy Harris has done a tremendous job bringing much forgotten history alive with his eloquent book Pulitzer's Gold. In the tradition of great historical writers like Barbara Tuchman, Harris weaves together rich strands of narrative to tell the compelling stories behind the most influential journalism of our times like the publishing of the Pentagon Papers, the year-long investigation into the Watergate break-in by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, and the outing of the Boston Diocese's shocking cover-up of the sexual predators in its midst. These stories and others are already familiar to us but what's not familiar are the stories behind the stories, and by filling in these details, Harris does a tremendous service not only to journalists but to anyone for whom history is a dynamic, urgent teacher. In reading Harris' gripping accounts of how these stories unfolded, I was reminded how vital good historical writing is to our understanding of what's going on today. This book is sure to attract a readership outside the communities of journalists and historians for whom these stories will be engrossing; I suspect anyone with a thirst for understanding our contemporary culture will find his writing invaluable. Maybe even more importantly, they'll find the stories just a good read. After all, how many of us knew that both the New York Times and the Washington Post were almost bypassed for the Public Service gold medal by the Pulitzer committee for their respective work on the Pentagon Papers and Watergate? And for the Watergate affecianado, Harris' interviews with Bob Woodward and others provides entirely fresh accounts of those pivotal events from the people that were there.That's living history.