Katrina and Terror Coverage Win Pulitzers

Posted on Apr 17, 2006

Two Gulf Coast newspapers took home the big award for their hurricane reportage; Risen and Lichtblau of the N.Y. Times won for their stories on Bush’s eavesdropping; and Dana Priest of the Washington Post earned a Pulitzer for reporting on secret CIA prisons. Full list of winners.

NY Times:

Gulf Coast Newspapers Share Pulitzer
By JAMES BARRON

The devastation of Hurricane Katrina and the continuing war on terror dominated the 2006 Pulitzer Prizes, announced today by Columbia University.

Two newspapers that covered Katrina against almost impossible odds, The Times-Picayune of New Orleans and The Sun Herald of Gulfport, Miss., each won the prize for public service.

The Pulitzer board cited The Times-Picayune for “heroic, multifaceted coverage” and for continuing to “serve an inundated city” even after its own plant had to be evacuated. The staff of the Times-Picayune won a second Pulitzer, in the breaking news reporting category, for “courageous and aggressive coverage” of Katrina.

The Sun Herald was recognized for “valorous and comprehensive coverage” and for “providing a lifeline for devastated readers, in print and online, during their time of greatest need.”

The war on terror figured in one of the three prizes won by The New York Times and one of four won by The Washington Post.

James Risen and Eric Lichtblau of The Times won for national reporting, for what the Pulitzer citation said were “carefully sourced stories on secret domestic eavesdropping.” The citation also said that their articles had “stirred a national debate on the boundary line between fighting terrorism and protecting civil liberty.”

Dana Priest of The Post won in the beat reporting category, for articles on secret prisons.

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