Pulitzer’s Gold: think I am safe in say- ing that the members Behind the Prize for Public of the Board…consider Service the gold medal for pub- lic service as easily the most important prize of By Roy J. Harris Jr. the year. I feel certain that they share my be- lief that my father so Columbia and London: University of regarded it. Journalis- Missouri Press, 2007, 473 pp. tic public service was my father’s passion” (p. Reviewed by Tamara Baldwin 30). Southeast Missouri State University In this work, the author has spotlighted the stories behind a number of the winners By focusing attention on the in the public service category from for Public Service 1918, when the first Pulitzer in this in his book, Pulitzer’s Gold: Be- category was awarded, through hind the Prize for Public Service 2007 when the book went to print. Journalism, Roy J. Harris Jr. offers As part of his research, Harris con- readers—whether ducted interviews, he intended to or when possible, with not—some of the newspaper person- most compelling nel who were part evidence of why of the coverage un- the nation needs its der consideration newspapers, a time- for the prize. In ly reminder in a addition, he inter- decade when news- viewed members papers around the of the Pulitzer Prize country are making jury who had the news not for their difficult task of de- content, but for ciding the winner their efforts to sus- of the prize from tain themselves in among the nomi- times of economic nees. One of the uncertainty. most illuminating Pulitzer’s Gold focuses on aspects of this approach is the in- telling the story behind the final- sight provided by the details that ists and winners of the Public Ser- allow readers glimpses of what the vice category of the Pulitzer Prize, prize jurors considered important a category which Joseph Pulitzer II, and the issues they had weighed and chairman of the board that awarded considered in reaching their final the Pulitzers from 1950-55, called and often agonizing decisions about the most important of the prizes: “I the awards.

124 • American Journalism — Some of the most interest- Catholic Church, and the 2006 prize ing stories in the book offer details shared by the Sun-Herald in Bi- about the earliest winners of this loxi-Gulfport, Mississippi and the category, including the 1921 Public Times-Picayune in New Orleans, Service prize awarded to the Boston , for their efforts to serve Post for its coverage of activities their readers and their communities and eventual arrest of Charles Ponzi by keeping them connected and in- (after whom the Ponzi scheme was formed in the days following Hur- subsequently named) and the 1922 ricane Katrina in 2005. prize to the World for Pulitzer’s Gold is a compelling coverage concerning activities of and engrossing look at journalism at the Ku Klux Klan. In Chapter 10, its best, as confirmed by the award- the author includes details about the ing of the Pulitzer Prize for Public Public Service awards the St. Louis Service to the newspapers and per- Post-Dispatch received in 1937, sonnel responsible for the journal- 1941, 1948, 1950 (shared with the ism represented in this account. Chicago Daily News), and 1952. Journalism and mass media histo- It was out of the author’s personal rians will find much in this work interest in that 1950 Public Service to enjoy and digest, and students award given for coverage related of journalism will find it extremely to 37 Illinois newspapermen being valuable as they study the craft of on an Illinois state payroll that this journalism and consider what it book in fact grew. The author’s means to be a journalist in today’s father, a reporter for the St. Louis world. For all readers, it should re- Post-Dispatch was recognized, affirm the value of newspapers in along with Chicago Daily News re- our world. ■ porter George Thiem, in the award citation that year. More recent winners have en- tire chapters devoted to them and offer engaging and fascinating ac- counts of the story behind the sto- ries. These include the 1973 prize awarded to the Washington Post for its Watergate case investigation; the 2001 prize awarded to the Orego- nian for its examination of abuses related to the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Services; the 2002 prize awarded to for its special section devoted to coverage of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack on the U.S.; the 2003 prize awarded to the Boston Globe for its coverage of the cases of sex- ual abuse by priests that ultimately led to some changes in the Roman

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