INTRODUCTION
THE PULITZER PRIZES FOR INTERNATIONAL REPORTING IN THE FOURTH PHASE OF THEIR DEVELOPMENT, 1978-1989
Heinz-Dietrich Fischer
As a result of the Vietnam war, the American people lost much of their confidence in the basic political constellations and institutions.1 This crisis of public confidence pertained also to the media in the United States. "A powerful and influential segment of the American public," Hohenberg states in June, 1978, "has developed strong doubts about its press, both as to reliability and judgment. While this has happened before in the history of the republic, the separation has seldom been so pronounced. Nor has it lasted so long. The gab between press and people is not easy to define. In all probability, it parallels to a very large degree the sense of alienation and resentment that exists between many prime movers in government and the most influential part of the press."2 These strained relations finally influenced the attitude of the Pulitzer Prize Committees toward the submitted press material. It was no longer the "hard" stories which prevailed in the lists of prize-winners, but those involving human interest and feelings, as exemplified by Henry Kamm's coverage of the boat people's tragedy which had won the award in 19783 for stories published during the preceding year.4 The idea to award the Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting on a humanitarian foreign subject seems to have had its effects of the following year's prize decision, too. When President William McGill of Columbia-University announced the Pulitzer Prize-winners on April 16, 1979, his list included the name of Richard Ben Cramer of the Philadelphia Inquirer who was elected prize-winner, out of a total number of 60 nominees in his category, "for
1 Cf. Anthony Lake (Ed.): The Vietnam Legacy. The War, American Society and the Future of American Foreign Policy, New York: New York University Press, 1976, pp. 392 ff. 2 John Hohenberg: A Crisis for the American Press, New York: Columbia University Press, 1978, p. VII. 3 Cf. John Hohenberg: The Pulitzer Prize Story II. Award-Winning News Stories, Columns, Editorials, Cartoons, and News Pictures, 1959-1980, New York: Columbia University Press, 1980, p. 201. 4 Cf. Heinz-Dietrich Fischer (Ed.): Outstanding International Press Reporting. Pulitzer Prize Winning Articles in Foreign Correspondence, Vol. 3: 1963-1977 - From the Escalation of the Vietnam War to the East Asian Refugee Problems, Berlin - New York: Walter de Gruyter, 1986, pp. 289 ff. XX Introduction reports from the Middle East" in 1978.5 Behind this rather general definition of the subject of Cramer's reports there was hidden, however, an extraordinary journalistic accomplishment which Hohenberg describes as follows: "Although the world's leaders loftily proclaimed peace year after year in the strife-torn Middle East, there was no peace... Both sides - the Israelis and the Arabs alike - mistrusted the changeable Americans, whether they were diplomats, soldiers, or correspondents. Any one of them could be a part of the CIA apparatus, in the view of the combatants, and any one of them could therefore be a target. This was the position in which Richard Ben Cramer found himself when he was sent to the Middle East in 1977 by the Philadelphia Inquirer... He left the bulletin news and the filing about military and diplomatic developments to the wire services that served the Inquirer and concentrated instead on how the continual warfare in the Middle East had affected the lives of ordinary people."6 In the words of the Philadelphia Inquirer," Cramer did not merely write soft pieces of hard news. Soft, yes, often. But they were damned hard to get. And their significance was indicated by their impact. The people about whom Cramer reported were not the cutouts of a less complicated era, an era in which United States readers knew one side of the Middle East conflict better than the other. Reporting that added dimension and character to Arab as well as Jew was not immediately popular in Philadelphia..."7 It is probably of interest that a short time after the bestowal of the Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting on Richard B. Cramer for his reports from the Middle East, a study about the working conditions and sources of foreign correspondents in that region was published, a study which had been developed at the Graduate School of Journalism, Columbia University. Questionnaires were sent to American correspondents stationed in the Middle East in those days in order to find out, among other things, "who these correspondents were, how they perceived their job, and what problems they faced in covering the Middle East."8 Of the 56 U.S. correspondents addressed in this region, 24 answered the two-page questionnaire, which means a return quota of about 43%. "American correspondents in the Middle East," the results of the study read, "have an average of 20 years of news experience. On the average, 14 of these years were in foreign correspondence, five and a half in the Middle East. These correspondents have to cover a wide geographic area. Fewer than 10% had been assigned only to one country, and 39% had covered 15 or more countries... Just under one half of the correspondents felt that the Middle East was being adequately covered by U.S. news media. More than one third felt that it was not... The Arab-Israeli conflict," the study says in another passage, "has long been the major story coming out of the Middle East. To many Americans, it was the only one. And the U.S. news media have often been accused of showing pro-Israel and anti-Arab biases (the two are not the same). Most of the surveyed correspondents also believed that such a bias exists. Half of them said the American news media have been pro- Israel since the October, 1973, war. No correspondent accused the U.S. news media of a pro-
5 The Pulitzer Prize Board (Ed.): The Pulitzer Prizes, 1917-1983, New York: Columbia University Press, 1983, p. 30. 6 John Hohenberg: The Pulitzer Prize Story II, op. cit., pp. 134 f. 7 Gene Roberts: The Search for Mideast Peace, a Human Drama, accompanying letter of the Philadelphia Inquirer's exhibit of the work of Richard Ben Cramer, undated (January 1979). 8 Daniel Sreebny: American Correspondents in the Middle East - Perceptions and Problems, in: Journalism Quarterly (Athens/Oh.), Vol. 56/No. 2, Summer 1979, p. 386. Heinz-Dietrich Fischer xxi
An unprecedented event in Philadelphia journalism. The Inquirer wins the Pulitzer Prize for the fifth year in a row.
It was another ecstatic scene in The Inquirer continuous streak of Pulitzers were: newsroom when the word came that 1975 - Donald Barlett and Richard Ben Cramer won journalism's most James Steele for their series coveted award — the Pulitzer Prize. "Auditing the IRS." Cramer was the winner in the International 1976 - Tony Auth for his Reporting category for his articles from the editorial cartoons. Middle East on Jews and Arabs caught in the 1977 - Acel Moore and swirling turmoil of war and politics. His Wendell Rawls for their dispatches focused on the common hopes and revelation of the conditions fears of Israelis, Egyptians, Jordanians, at Farview State Hospital. Syrians and Lebanese. This marks the fifth consecutive year 1978 - The entire Inquirer staff The Inquirer has won a Pulitzer Prize, a won the Gold Medal for feat accomplished by only one other paper Public Service for its in the history of journalism. coverage of police abuse Now, with this newest Pulitzer, The Inquirer cases in Philadelphia. has won 55 major national awards since 1974. a Good journalism is a product of dedicated record unmatched by any other paper in the journalists. We're proud of all the special country. people whose efforts have brought The Other winners in The Inquirer's Inquirer national recognition as one of America's best newspapers. Witt JpftilaMpfua ^Inquirer
[Source: Editor & Publisher (New Yoric), Vol. 112/No. 17, April 28, 1979, p. 37.] xxii Introduction
Arab bias (nine of the 24 said that the coverage was neutral),"9 a statement, furthermore, that also applied to the Pulitzer Prize-winning articles from that area by Richard B. Cramer. As to the change in the proceedings of the announcement of the Pulitzer Prizes that had been planned some time ago, an important decision fell in autumn, 1979. "Nominees for the Pulitzer Prize," the concept of reforms ran, "will be made public along with the winners in April (1980) as part of a new policy announced... by the Pulitzer Board... The Board also voted on its October 9 meeting to expand its membership from 12 to 15, of which up to three can be non-journalists. Tenure of Board members was also changed to limit the maximum of 3 four-year terms to 3 three-year terms. The changes came," a report about the approaching alterations says," six months after the Board came under attack for not following the recommendation of the nominating juries in six of the 19 categories... Last January, the Columbia Board of Trustees, which holds final control of the awards, revised the nominating policy to give the Pulitzer Prize Board ultimate responsibility for awarding the Prize. The most recent changes were designed to give recognition to top nominees as well as the winner, previously the only one made public."10 "We will make the process more open," said Richard Baker, secretary of the Advisory Board and professor of journalism. The names of unsuccessful contenders were in the past often divulged by jurors to the press," so they were known anyway," Baker also said and added: "We hope that this change will ameliorate the relations between the jurors and the Board. The decision was meant to reduce tensions if the juries' choices are overturned by the Board."11 However, Richard H. Leonard, editor and vice president of the Milwaukee Journal and member of the Advisory Board, said: "There's always been controversy about the Board making changes in the voting and it will probably continue."12 One aspect, however, could not be ameliorated by the transparency of the decision-making for the awards: "For every Prize recommended by the Pulitzer Board," Board member James Reston remarked, "many others are disappointed and some are aggrieved and even angry."13 Critically, and in some passages even reproachfully, David Shaw, a prominent journalist of the Los Angeles Times commented on the previous awarding practice of the Pulitzer Prizes in a series of three articles at the beginning of 1980, thus before the new procedure could take effect. "Much of the secrecy surrounding the Pulitzers - board members' votes aren't even officially recorded - has been cultivated by the Columbia journalism professors who have served as secretaries to the board and the administrators to the prizes throughout the years. This was particularly true," Shaw continued in his article, "of John Hohenberg, secretary- administrator from 1954 to 1976 and 'a great believer in the sanctity of the closed door' in the words of Elie Abel, former dean of the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia. To this day, Hohenberg refuses to be interviewed about the Pulitzers. But Hohenberg has retired now, and over the last two or three years, the secretary shrouding the Pulitzer selection process has been pierced several times amid growing controversies over several recommendations made
9 Ibid., pp. 386 f. 10 Marie Poirier: Prize nominees will be named with Pulitzers, in: Columbia Spectator (New York), Vol. CIV/No. 31, October 18,1979, p. 1, col. 3. 11 Quoted ibid., p. 4, cols. 3 f. 12 Quoted ibid., p. 4, col. 3. 13 James Reston: How to win the Pulitzer, in: The New York Times (New York), Vol. CXXVIII/No. 44,191, April 18, 1979, p. 23, cols. 1-2. Heinz-Dietrich Fischer xxiii by various Pulitzer nominating juries but overturned by the Pulitzer Prize Board itself. As a result,... several new rules have gone into effect for 1980 - including a complete overhaul of the jury system... But these changes and others - some already announced, some being still considered - aren't likely to diminish controversy over the Pulitzers. Despite the apocalyptic tone of some recent criticism - fear that controversy would somehow tarnish the Pulitzers - there has always been controversy over the Pulitzers, and the Pulitzers have always survived, prestige intact."14 After this general criticism Shaw referred to the juror's function in the process of awarding the prizes. "Juries are the critical point in the Pulitzer process, most board members feel, and they blame poor juries for most of the recent controversy over the board rejections of jury recommendations... The board secretary who assembles the juries... tries to balance each jury with representatives of newspapers of varying sizes and locations. But he hasn't always succeeded. In 1978, for example, the international reporting jury consisted of editors from Memphis, Atlanta, Shreveport and Charleston, West Virginia - all from the South, none with any foreign staff of its own. The Pulitzer Board rejected the jury's first three choices and gave the Pulitzer (award) instead to the jury's fourth choice - Henry Kamm of the New York Times - for the first stories describing the plight of the Cambodian boat people. 'That jury was just plain ignorant,' says one board member. 'You couldn't possibly give the award to anyone but Kamm.'"15 When about four months after these critical statements the Pulitzer Prizes for 1980 were announced, the international reporting jury was widely dispersed geographically, being composed of press people from Colorado Springs, Spokane, Wash., Philadelphia, Pa., Sacramento, Calif., and White Plains, N.Y.16 This jury, same as the Advisory Board, was so impressed by the correspondence of a two-man reporting team of the Courier-Journal, Louisville, Ky., that it decided unanimously to give the International Reporting award to the reporter Joel Brinkley and the photographer Jay Mather "for stories from Cambodia"17 during 1979. "A world caught in the ebb and flow of humanity," the jury report reads, "moving from the crisis centers, sought an explanation of the refugee problem. Who were they? What brought them to this point of exodus? What kind of lives were they leading? Why and how did it all happen? It was these questions," the jury report goes on, "that were addressed most effectively by Joel Brinkley and Jay Mather,... performing in the finest tradition of the Pulitzer competition. Their outstanding series brought the suffering and torment, the puzzlement and confusion of displacement in the homes of the Courier-Journal readers more effectively than the TV screen. They added dimensions to reporting that mark print journalism as the most conclusive, the most detailed available to us today... We recommend this effort enthusiastically as the first place winner in the 1979 Pulitzer category for
14 David Shaw: The Pulitzers - Flaws Fail to Tarnish Them, in: Los Angeles Times (Los Angeles, Cai.), Vol. XCIX/No. 34, January 6, 1980, p. 1, col. 1; p. 3, col. 1. 15 David Shaw: Sentiment, Geography help Papers win Pulitzers, in: Los Angeles Times (Los Angeles, Cai.), Vol. XCIX/No. 35, January 7,1980, p. 21, cols. 2 f. 16 Columbia University (Ed.): Announcement of the 64th annual Pulitzer Prizes, New York, April 14,1980, p. 2 (mimeographed press release). 17 The Pulitzer Prize Board (Ed.): The Pulitzer Prizes, 1917-1983, op. cit.., p. 30. Introduction
ENTRY FORM FOR A PULITZER PRIZE InJournalism (TO BE PILED BEFORE FEBRUARY 1)
ENTRANT. Joel Brinkley and Jay Mather 1j34 Cherokee Ra. (oameiatdii) 3X0 Monohan Drive HOME AnnnEss Louisville , Kv. 40204 / Louisville, Kv. 40207 _ reporter and photogracher, The PRESENT OCCUPATION AND rm^AMTZATTOM " 7/22/52 Washington.; D. C.— Brinkley DATE AND PLAG OF ENTRANTS BIRTH. •22-4(5 Denver, Cola. Mdtlmr PLEASE ENCLOSE ENTRANTS Biography £5 and Photograph (S and check accordingly.
The following Pulitzer Prizes in Journalism are awarded for material in a Uoited States news- paper published daily, Sunday or at least once a week during the year, appropriate box. Cbêcà Her* 1. For a distinguished example of meritorious public service by a newspaper through the ose of its journalistic resources which may include editorials, cartoons, and photographs, as well as repotting; a gold medal. (No more than 20 articles may be submitted for each exhibit) 2. For a distinguished «ample of general or spot news reporting within a newspaper's local area of circulation, preferably by an individual, giving consideration to alertness, resourcefulness, and high quality of writing, $1,000. (No more than 10 articles may be submitted for each exhibit) 3. For a distinguished example of investigative or other specialized reporting within a newspaper's local area of circulation by an individual or team, presented as a single article or series, giving prime consideration to initiative, resourcefulness, research and high quality ot writing, $1,000. (No more than 10 articles may be submitted for each exhibit) 4. For a distinguished example of reporting on ¿¿fairs, $1,000. (No more than 10 articles may be submitted for each exhibit) J. For a distinguished example of reporting on international affairs, including United Nations cor- respondence, $1*000. (No more than 10 articles may be submitted for each exhibit) 6. For distinguished editorial writing, the test of excellence being clearness of style, moral purpose, sound reasoning; and power to indueace public opinion in what the writer conceives to be the right direction, due account being taken or the whole volume of the editorial writer's work during the year, ¿1,000. (No more than 10 articles may be submitted for each exhibit) 7. For a distinguished example of a cartoonist's work, the determining qualities being that the car- toon shall embody an idea made dearly apparent shall show good drawing and striking effect and shall be intended to be helpful to some commendable cause of public importance, due account being taken of the whole volume of die artist's work during the year, $1,000. (No more than 10 cartoons may be submitted for each exhibit) 3. For an outstanding example of spot news photography in black and white or color, which may consist of a photograph or photographs, a sequence or an album, $1,000. (No more than 20 photographs may be submitted with each exhibit) 9. For an outstanding example of feature photography in black and white or color, which may consist of a photograph or photographs, a sequence or an aihnm, $1,000. (No more than 20 photographs may be submitted with each exhibit) 10. For distinguished commentary, $1,000. (No more than 10 articles may be submitted for each exhibit) 11. For distinguished criticism, $1,000. (No more than 10 articles may be submitted for each exhibit) 12. For a distinguished example of feature writing giving prime consideration to high literary qual- ity and originality, $1,000. (No more than 10 articles may be submitted for each exhibit)
Signature of person sponsoring this entrant ^^ V-l-j^ATJ^X. (may be self) David Hawpe, managing editor, The Courier- Please print your nunc. atlc. ina crtpnirtrion 525 W. Broadway, Louisville, Ky. 40202 Journal Address ( Please tenti entry form and exhibit before February I to Professor Richard T. Baier, Secretar;, Advisory Board on the Pulitzer Prizes, at 702 ¡ournaiism, Columbia University, Sew York, 4V. Y. ¡0027. Telefhorie: 212-280-3841-3842. See reverse side for Plan of Award.)
Sample of a Nomination Form of 1979 Heinz-Dietrich Fischer xxv international reporting."18 The two prize-winners, Brinkley and Mather, were, however, no "regular" foreign, but special correspondents. "When the Cambodian refugee story developed," the Advisory Board reasoned, "the Louisville Courier-Journal decided the wire service reports it was running were not bringing its readers close enough to an important human experience. It dispatched reporter Joel Brinkley and photographer Jay Mather to the scene to make the connection between a predictable day's events in the Ohio River Valley and the honors of a day in the refugee camps. Their week in a small Thai border village placed them in war-zone danger... ."19 Like the reports of Henry Kamm in 1978, the stories from Cambodia by Brinkley and Mather were regarded worthy of a Pulitzer Prize. This was the second time - after the award to William Mullen and Ovie Carter of the Chicago Tribune for their reports from the hunger areas of Africa and Asia during the mid- seventies - that the journalistic products of a photographer were included in the internationally oriented Pulitzer Prize. As already decided at the Advisory Board session of fall 1979, on the occasion of the next public announcement of the award-winners in March 1980, for the first time besides the winners in each category the names of other finalists were also published. In addition to prize-winners Joel Brinkley and Jay Mather, a press release of Columbia University shows, three further candidates had entered the short list in the international reporting category.20 The members of the Advisory Board - which had changed somewhat in its structure and composition - unconditionally agreed to the jury's well-founded vote for Brinkley and Mather. The changed personal constitution of the board was a consequence of some reforms which had already been discussed in the fall of the preceding year, and which now came into force: The retired Dean Elie Abel of Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism, who had belonged to the committee ex-officio and without a vote, had been replaced by his successor in office, Osborn Elliott.21 James Reston, having represented the New York Times for no less than twelve years on the Board, also withdrew, same as Benjamin C. Bradley, executive editor of the Washington Post.22 In spring 1980, William McGill, president of Columbia University and thus member ex-officio of the Advisory Board, belonged for the last time to this committee, being replaced by his successor in office, Michael I. Sovern, after his withdrawal.23 "What saved the American news media from the consequences of their casual initial neglect of much of the foreign news that shaped the destinies of the nation was the presence, the skill and the dedication of a relatively few distinguished correspondents at the scene of great events," Hohenberg marked as a basic problem of the system of U.S. foreign correspondence in the beginning of the eighties. He continued: "Sometimes, as in the early days of the Vietnam War, the repeated warnings of a handful of knowledgeable
18 Charles L. Bennett/William H. Cowles, III./B. Dale Davis/Charles K. McClatchy/Joseph M. Ungaro: Report of the International Reporting Jury, New York, March 4, 1980, p. 2 (PPO). 19 Columbia University (Ed.): Announcement of the 64th annual Pulitzer Prizes, op. cit., p. 2. 20 Cf. ibid. 21 Cf. Heinz-Dietrich Fischer: The new Dean and his fresh approach - an interview with Osborn Elliott in May, 1979, in: Heinz-Dietrich Fischer/Christopher G. Trump (Eds.): Education in Journalism. The 75th Anniversary of Joseph Pulitzer's Ideas at Columbia University (1904- 1979), Bochum/FRG: Studienverlag Dr. N. Brockmeyer, 1980, pp. 377 ff. 22 Columbia University (Ed.): Announcement of the 64th annual Pulitzer Prizes, op. cit., pp. 5 f. 23 Ibid., p. 5. xxvi Introduction correspondents were disregarded; and in Iran, just before the rebellion that forced the Shah out of office, the last representative of a major American newspaper was told to close his office and come home. Similarly, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan thoroughly surprised the news media."24 With it, however, the readers' interest increased steadily, but it was satisfied by only a part of American newspapers. "While the recent debates in Unesco25 have certainly focused attention on the issue of foreign affairs reporting and readership in the United States," Sparkes and Winter of Syracuse University, Syracuse, N.Y., stated in 1980, "the area is hardly new to communication research."26 In order to obtain more precise results than were available so far, the authors made an inquiry in a random sample of more than 200 households in Syracuse, without succeeding, however, in penetrating deeper into some of the problems. "It is unclear," they wrote, "how one should react to the prospect that television is in fact the dominant source of foreign news for the American public. Certainly the medium is less well suited to in-depth reporting than are newspapers and magazines, but how important is this fact? ... Properly bridging between cultures and nations, however, requires a certain depth of understanding and careful investigation. The question which then must be asked is first, whether publishers are interested in such journalistic activity; and second, whether American journalists, at least, are properly equipped to so perform?"27 No qualification problems of any sort applied to Shirley Christian, of the Miami Herald on whom was conferred the 1981 Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting "for her dispatches from Central America."28 The prize announcement which for the first time had been made by the new president of Columbia University, Michael I. Sovem, included some reference to the merits of Shirley Christian's dispatches. "In 1980", it stated, "she covered the violent funeral of Archbishop Oscar Romero in San Salvador and the death of the American nuns there. She explained the turbulence in that and other Central American countries and the reactions of the United States. And she reported the human stories - the peasant, the soldier, the landowner."29 A nomination letter from the Miami Herald which was addressed "to the Pulitzer Judges" also referred to the outstanding journalistic accomplishments of Shirley Christian, the newspaper's managing director emphasizing: "The Herald's Shirley Christian was in Central America for the killings, the funerals, the mass demonstrations, the tributes to Fidel Castro, the ideological harangues. She was also there for the rambling, late-night talks with harassed and confused government leaders, men who would ask at the end: 'What do you think I ought to do?' And she was there with two little orphan girls who followed her during the funeral for two American nuns in a mountainous El Salvador town asking: 'Do you want a daughter?'... She wrote not only about the violence in the battle for ideological primacy but also about the anguish confronting the human players... The turbulence of Central America in
24 John Hohenberg: The Pulitzer Prize Story II, op. cit. pp. 120 f. 25 Cf. UNESCO: Reporting of International News and Roles of the Gate-Keepers. Summary reports of two UNESCO meetings, Paris: United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, 1980,18 pp. 26 Vemone M. Sparkes/James P. Winter: Public Interest in Foreign News, in: Gazette - International Journal for Mass Communication Studies (Deventer/The Netherlands), Vol. 26/No. 3, 1980, p. 149. 27 Ibid., pp. 166 ff. 28 The Pulitzer Prize Board (Ed): The Pulitzer Prizes, 1917-1983, op. cit., p. 30. 29 Columbia University (Ed.): Backgrounds and additional information about the 1981 Pulitzer Prizes, New York, April 13,1981, p. 3 (mimeographed press release). Heinz-Dietrich Fischer xxvii
1980 was a dangerous story that carried with it a great personal risk for any reporter covering it... It was a region where names were almost daily crossed from address books as another contact became the newest statistic among the thousands to die violently... Christian did more than report the violence. She helped Herald readers to understand why it was occurring... ."30 It may be interesting to have a look at the general situation of foreign correspondence from El Salvador in the early 1980's. At that time, Soderlund and Schmitt stress in a special study, "El Salvador was... one of the most dangerous 'hot spots' of a rekindled cold war: a Western hemisphere society ripped apart by a civil war that has attracted international participation...".31 The study was based on newspaper coverage of El Salvador from four different countries (Argentina, Chile, Canada, USA), located on two different continents. One aim of the study was the source of Salvadorean news coverage as shown in the following table:32
Source of News Coverage on El Salvador, in Percent
Argentina Chile South Canada United North N=42 N=36 America N=27 States America N=78 N=55 N=82 •
Local Staff/ Special Correspondents 19.0 0 10.3 20.8 51.0 41.3 Canadian Columnists 0 0 0 8.3 0 2.7 American Wire Services 54.8 36.1 46.3 33.3 27.5 29.3 American Columnists 0 0 0 12.5 15.7 14.7 European Wire Services 26.2 63.9 43.6 25.0 5.9 12.0
The table underlines that "the various wire Services provided the majority of news items. The American wire services included AP, UPI, and New York Times, and these accounted for 38% of total coverage... The American press showed evidence of extreme parochialism. Only 6% of Salvadorean news came from non-American employed sources. However, given that 51% of copy was written by special correspondents and local staff, there appeared to be both greater personal contact with events in El Salvador and greater personal expertise on the part of American writers. Nontheless, the amount of non-American perspective present in the reporting of... American newspapers was small indeed. Perhaps what is most ironic,... is that American newspapers appeared less dependent on American wire services than did the newspapers in the other three countries",33 a good example of which is the Pulitzer Prize- winning reporting by Shirley Christian.
30 Heath J. Meriwether: Nomination of Shirley Christian for a Pulitzer Prize, Miami, Fla., entry of February 2,1981 (PPO). 31 Walter C. Soderlund/Carmen Schmitt: El Salvador's Civil War as Seen In North and South American Press, in: Journalism Quarterly (Columbia, S.C.), Vol. 63/No. 2, Summer 1986, p. 268. 32 Ibid., p. 273. 33 Ibid., pp. 272 f. xxviii Introduction
Another example of the coverage of a country's internal difficulties, as Shirley Christian had demonstrated it in Central America, were the dispatches honored with the 1982 Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting. The tensions in Poland which lasted several months and which finally, on December 13, 1981, resulted in the proclamation of martial law by the government of the People's Republic of Poland, made up the thematical backgrounds of the reports. "The first reports began coming in last Saturday night, December 12, from Solidarity members in Poznan, Leszno and Gostyn," the New York Times entry submitted to the Advisory Board reports: "Tanks, in formation of 40 to 60, were roaring down the highways, taking up positions across the country. In Warsaw, police vans and trucks, carrying military and security units in full battle dress, began moving to the city streets. At midnight, Solidarity's office in the capital was suddenly surrounded by riot police. At 1:15 a.m., a correspondent saw the occupants of the buildings being moved into the vans, and realized that the crackdown had finally come. The correspondent was John Damton of the New York Times. He had seen it coming a few hours earlier when he filed his story for the Sunday paper on the meeting of Solidarity's national commission in Gdansk. His first edition story said the union leadership was about to call for a day of anti-Government protests around the country and a referendum on whether Poland should stay within the Communist system at all. The troops began moving just as he filed a postscript saying that the resolutions, clearly as unacceptable to Moscow as they were to Warsaw, had passed. Mr. Darnton kept filing updates as Poland's 16 months of revolutionary ferment turned into the repression of martial law. Past midnight, after the telephones were cut off, he moved to the Associated Press office downtown and filed news through the agency system as it happened... ."34 This outstanding undertaking brought the 1982 Pulitzer International Reporting Prize to John Darnton "for his reporting from Poland during the preceding year.35 The Pulitzer International Reporting award of 1983 went to two foreign correspondents covering the same area. The prize "for a distinguished example of reporting on international affairs, including United Nations correspondence," as it was officially named, was awarded to Thomas L. Friedman of the New York Times and Loren Jenkins of the Washington Post "for their individual reporting of the Israeli invasion of Beirut and its tragic aftermath" in 1982.36 "The Israeli military operations that drove the Palestine Liberation Organization out of South Lebanon and Beirut in the summer of 1982," the New York Times entry explained to the Pulitzer jury, "changed the Middle East: the Arab world, Israel, the strategic balance in the region. No other American reporter was as well equipped to report and assess the consequences of the war as Thomas L. Friedman, a young man who speaks both Arabic and Hebrew and did graduate work in both Cairo and Jerusalem to prepare for his journalistic career. There is urgency and intensity to his reporting, and a quality of human compassion for the Arabs and the Israeli soldiers caught up in the peculiar horrors of this war. But there is also incisive analysis of extraordinary sophistication... Because he felt it was his duty to the readers of the New York Times," the text continues, "Mr. Friedman remained with the people in Beirut through all nine weeks of the siege even though several members of his office
34 A. M. Rosenthal: Nomination of John Damton for a Pulitzer Prize, New York, undated (January 1982), p. 1. 35 Columbia University (Ed.): The 66th annual Pulitzer Prizes..., New York, April 12,1982, p. 2. 36 Columbia University (Ed.): The 67th annual Pulitzer Prizes..., New York, April 18,1983, p. 2. Heinz-Dietrich Fischer XXIX John Darnton and Jack Rosenthal of The New York Times win Pulitzer Prizes for
1918 The New York Tun*»."for the 1946 AmaJdt^Cortesi. for distin- 1970 Ada Louise Huxtable, archi- mott disinterested and meritorious guished correspondence from tecture critic, for distinguished public service rendered by an American Buenos Aim. criticism. newspaper"—complete and accurate coverage of the news of the war. 1946 William L Laurence, forhia 1971 Harold C. Schonberg, musk 1982 eyewitness account of the atomic critic, for distinguished criticism. 1923 Alva Johnston, for distin- bombing of Nagasaki and articles on guished reporting of scientific news. the atomic bomb. 1972 The New York Times, for a distinguished example of meritorious 1926 Edward M. Kingsbury, for the 194 7 Brooks Atkinson, for a distin- public service by s newspaper through most distinguished editorial of the guished senes of articles on Russia. the use of its journalistic resources" year, on the Hundred Neediest Cases. —publication of the Pentagon Papers. 1949 C P. TVuaseU, for "consistent 1930 Russell Owen, for graphic news excellence in covering the national 1973 Max Frankel, for his coverage dispatches from the Byrd Antarctic scene from Washington!' of President Nixon's visit to China, Expedition. a distinguished example of reporting on 1950 Meyer Berger, for "a distin- international affairs. 1932 Walter Duranty, for dispas- guished example of local reporting"— sionate interpretative reporting of the an article on the killing of 13 people by 1974 Hedrick Smith, for his coverage news from Russia. a berserk gunman. of the Soviet Union in 1973, a distinguished example of reporting 1934 Frederick T. Birchall. for 1951 Arthur Krock. a special of foreign affairs. unbiased report uig of the news from commendation for his exclusive inter- Germany. view with President Truman as "the 1976 Sydney H. Schanberg. for his outstanding instance of national coverage of the fall of Cambodia, 1935 Arthur Krock. for distin- reporting in 1950" a distinguished example of reporting guished correspondence, impartial and on foreign affairs. analytical Washington coverage. 1951 Cyms L Sulzberger, special citation for exclusive interview with 1976 Walter W. ("Red") Smith, for 1836 Lauren D. Lyman, for distin- Archbishop Steptnac of Yugoslavia. his Sports of The Times column, an guished reoorting: a world beat on the example of distinguiahed criticism. departure of the Lindberghs for 1952 Anthony H Leviero, for England. distinguished reporting on national 1978 Henry Kamm, chief Asian affairs. diplomatic correspondent, for calling 1937 Anne O Hare McComuck. for attention to the plight of Indochinese distinguished foreign correspondence: 1953 The New York Times, special refugees, an outstanding example of dispatches and special articles citation for its Sunday Review of the reporting on foreign affairs. from Europe. Week Sect tun. which "for 17 years has brought enlightenment and intelligent 1978 Walter KerT.Sunday drama 1937 William L Laurence, for commentary10 "a readers." critic, for an outstanding distinguished reporting of the Tercen- example of distinguiahed criticism. tenary Celebration at Harvard, shared 1955 Harrison E Salisbury, for a with /our other reporters. 1978 William Safire. Op-Ed Page series of articles based on his six years columnist, for his columns on the 1938 Arthur Krock. for distin- Bert Lance affair, an example guished Washington correspondence. of distinguiahed commentary. 1955 Arthur Krock. s special 1940 Otto O Toiischus. for articles citation for distinguished correspond- 1979 Russell Baker, for hia from Berlin explaining the economic ence from Washington. "Observer" column, an example of and ideological background of war- distinguished commentary. 1956 Arthur Daley, for hia sports engaged Germany column. "Sports of The Times! 1981 Dave Anderson, for his Sports of The Times column. An example of 1941 The New York Times, special 1957 James B Rest on. for distin- ritation "for the public education dist inguished commentary. guished reporting from Washington value of its foreign news reports, exemplified by its scope, bv its excel- 1981 John M Crewdson. for his lence of writing, presentation and 1958 The New York Times, for its coversge of illegal aliens snd supplementary background informa- distinguished coverage of foreign immigration. A distinguished example tion. illustration and interpretation." news of reporting on national affairs.
1942 Louis Stark, for distinguished 1960 A M Rosenthal, for perceptive 1982 John Darnton. bureau chief. reporting of important labor stones. Warsaw, for his coverage of the crisis in Poland. A distinguished 1943 Hanson W Baldwin, for a example of international reporting. Mnn of art tries report ing a t our of 1963 Anthony Lewis, for his distin- the Pacific battle areas guished reporting of the proceedings 1982 Jack Rosenthal, deputy of the United States Supreme Court. editorial page fdilor. A dis- 1944 The New York Times, "for the tinguiahed example of editorial moot disinterested and meritorious 1964 David Hal berat am. for his page writing. servu e rendered by an American new»paprr"—a survey of the teaching of American history 1968 J Anthony Lukas. for "a 1945 James B Keston. for news dual inguiahed example of local dispatches and interpretive articles reporting"—an article on a on I he Dumbarton Oak» Security murdered 1M-year-old girl and Conference the two different iivea she led.
ibr JifUi JJork Simc« and members of its staff have won 50 Pulitzer Awards. More than any other newspaper.
[Source: Editor & Publisher (New York), Vol. 115/No. 17, April 24, 1982, p. 41.] XXX Introduction assistant's family were killed and his home was destroyed in an explosion in the first days of the attack. Mr. Friedman was there when the beaten P.L.O. finally agreed to evacuate in August, and he was there in September when Christian Phalangist militiamen, asked by the Israeli to go into the Palestinian refugee camps, went on a murderous rampage and killed hundreds of civilians... After the war was over, Mr. Friedman traveled around the Middle East and explained, in a series of articles, what the war had done: to Lebanon, to the Arabs, and to the P.L.O. ,..37 Friedman's lenghty series on the defeat of the Palestinian Liberation Organization in Lebanon, according to W. David Sloan et al., "is a wonderful model of how a reporter can draw material from many sources and put all the pieces together in a meaningful and readable way. The success of the story is the result of a number of approaches to style and structure. Most important is the narrative form in which the story is told...".38 And what were the merits of the co-winner of the International Reporting award, Loren Jenkins of the Washington Post? The editors of the paper pointed out in their letter of recommendation to the Pulitzer judges that "the nominated articles, one of which brought Jenkins a death threat from the men who committed the massacre in the Shatila refugee camp, are eloquent testimony in themselves to the dedication, professionalism, and talent that Jenkins demonstrated in covering this story. We confidendy predict," the accompanying letter continues, "that the range and depth of his coverage cannot be matched by any other journalist who covered 1982's biggest foreign story. Drawing on two decades of experience gained in covering wars and conflicts..., Jenkins pursued all aspects of this story with determination... Jenkins was among the first to enter the camp after the killing had stopped on a Saturday morning that he would later tell his editors was he worst day of his life. His main story is full, careful, and dispassionate. His sidebar on viewing a scene that is almost beyond human powers of comprehension is deeply moving... It is not only for his courage and his skill that we feel Loren Jenkins deserves the singular distinction the Pulitzer Prize conveys. It is also for the moral conviction and sense of humanity that pervades the stories he has written in truly impossible, insane situations."39 That the Middle East region and its numerous problems stayed in the center of American media coverage can be proved by the Pulitzer International Reporting award of 1984, too. After a break of only four years in this award category, again a woman journalist earned the prestigious prize: It was Karen Elliott House of the Wall Street Journal who received the award for her reports from Jordan and especially for interviews with the Jordanian monarch.40 The managing editor of the paper told the Pulitzer judges that the Wall Street Journal nominated Mrs. House "for her reporting from the Middle East in the spring of 1983, and, particularly, for a stunning series of stories on King Hussein of Jordan and his pivotal role in President Reagan's abortive Middle East peace plan... The main mideast story last year," the letter continues, "was the failure of the Reagan Plan and Syria's subsequent dominance of
37 A. M. Rosenthal: Accompanying statement of the New York Times to the exhibit of Thomas L. Friedman, undated (January 1983). 38 William David Sloan/Valarie McCrary/Johanna Cleary: The Best of Pulitzer Prize News Writing, Columbus/Oh.: Publishing Horizons, Inc., 1986, p. 420. 39 Jim Hoagland: Accompanying letter to Loren Jenkin's exhibit, New York, January 21, 1983, pp. 1 f. 40 Cf. Columbia University (Ed.): The 68th annual Pulitzer Prizes..., New York, April 16, 1984, p. 2 (mimeographed press release). Heinz-Dietrich Fischer xxxi events in the region. Mrs. House, during three months of reporting in Amman, Damascus, Jerusalem and Beirut, not only chronicled this unfolding story in vivid detail, but also analyzed - and accurately foreshadowed - the course of events... All this news was blended into two front page 'leaders' and an editorial page feature along with colorful detail... and probing, prescient analysis. The articles were written in a style that is at once graceful, gripping and moving. Mrs. House's work had major impact. The Hussein articles prompted private meetings and public statements at the White House. They caused titillation and consternation in Mideast capitals. They were widely reprinted in the U.S. and international press. And they were enthusiastically acclaimed by her peers."41 Much praise of her work came from other journalists among them James Reston, Joseph Kraft, William Safire, Anthony Lewis42 -, and from a Pulitzer Prize jury saying in its report: "Her articles provided rare and valuable insights into classical power relationships in the Middle East"43, bringing to her the Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting. One of the Middle East's neighbouring regions, North Africa, also was a long-standing area of crises, - but of a different nature: drought and hunger determined the fate of many countries in the Sahara and Sahel zone. Already in the mid-seventies a reporter team of the Chicago Tribune had won an international correspondence Pulitzer award for coverage of famine in Africa and India.44 When a decade later, in 1985, Josh Friedman, Dennis Bell and Ozier Muhammad of Newsday won the award "for their series on the plight of the hungry in Africa,"45 this resulted, in part, from the following recommendation of their work sent to the Pulitzer judges: "Newsday's coverage of famine in Africa," the newspaper's editor told the jury," is part of its ongoing commitment to the plight of the hungry across the world... When international relief reports last spring indicated that the drought and famine in Africa could reach epidemic proportions, Newsday put together a team of two reporters and a photographer to travel across the continent to examine the issue... To prepare the trip, the team spent six weeks interviewing a wide variety of international relief agency officials and government officials of twelve African countries to determine the extent and impact of the drought and famine in individual countries. Newsday's reporters and photographer were the only western journalists in Ethiopia when the short BBC film on deaths in the northern provinces first woke the rest of the world to the African tragedy. In short order, as other media scrambled to catch up, the Newsday reports from Ethiopia became the first stories and photos by American journalists... But while the world, and most media reports, remained focused only on the agony of Ethiopia, the Newsday reporting effort also included compelling stories from other countries not as severely impacted but just as tragic... In each case, the story told was of the people and by the people."46 The Pulitzer Board was impressed by the stories, too, and gave the award to the Newsday team for its work in 1984.
41 Norman Pearlstine: Accompanying letter to Karen E. House's exhibit, New York, January 31, 1984, pp. 1 f. 42 Ibid., p. 2. 43 John Hohenberg/Scott McGehee/Les Payne/Amold Rosenfeld/David Schneiderman: Report of the International Reporting Jury, New York, March 7,1984, p. 1. 44 Cf. Heinz-Dietrich Fischer (Ed.): Outstanding International Press Reporting. Pulitzer Prize Winning Articles in Foreign Correspondence, Vol. 3, op. cit., pp. 233 ff. 45 Columbia University (Ed.): The 69th annual Pulitzer Prizes..., New York, April 24, 1985, p. 3. 46 Anthony E. Insolia: From the Editor of Newsday to the Pulitzer Judges, undated (January 1985). xxxii Introduction
In the following award year, 1986, the Pulitzer International Reporting Prize was given to stories from the United States but based on developments in another country so that the award rules ("reporting on international affairs") were met. The Pulitzer Prize in this category again went - as in the year before - to a team of three journalists: Lewis M. Simon, Pete Carey and Katherine Ellison of the San Jose Mercury News won the award for their investigative reports on the transfer of money by the Marcos family and friends from the Philippines to the U.S.A. and the consequences for America.47 "For years," the executive editor of the newspaper wrote to the Pulitzer jurors, "Filipinos and Filipino Americans routinely have accused President Ferdinand E. Marcos and his closest political and business associates of hiding their personal wealth overseas. But the allegations consisted of little more than rumors and suspicions. Until now. In a three-part series, reporters... of the San Jose Mercury News documented overseas investment by President Marcos, his family and several close associates on a scale that even the Philippine government no longer could ignore. The report and subsequent stories led to impeachment resolutions in Manila and congressional hearings in Washington, D.C. Searching through real estate records, corporate documents, court papers and tax rolls in the United States, the Philippines, Hong Kong and Canada," the letter of recommendation continued, "Carey, Ellison and Simon painstakingly documented how billions of dollars have left the Philippines in the past twenty years and how millions have been invested in the United States and other countries... We believe," the letter closes, "that reporting by the Mercury News staff on Philippine corruption represents an unprecedented level of investigative, international journalism. Only rarely can any newspaper, regardless of its size, achieve such impact, whether at home or abroad."48 So thought the Pulitzer Boaid and gave the international award to the team. When the winners of the 1987 Pulitzer Prizes were announced the focus in the international reporting category shifted to another troubled area of the world: South Africa. Already in the early seventies, a Washington Post journalist was awarded for his work on that topic,49 and now, fifteen years later it was Michael Parks of the Los Angeles Times who earned the Pulitzer Prize for international affairs for his reports from the South African trouble centers.50 "As South Africa drifted deeper into disorder in 1986 and the authorities in Pretoria responded by throwing up a succession of barriers to covering the news," the editors of the Los Angeles Times told the Pulitzer jurors, "reporting on an already complex story became even more difficult, even more dangerous. Despite the obstacles, including what finally amounted to formal censorship, no one rose to the challenge with more courage, more determination and more skill than Michael Parks... Parks showed the reader a South Africa seen by very few people, including South Africans. Without taking sides, he described in moving detail the struggle for the blacks, still denied a voice at any level of government... The terrible consequences of apartheid - a steady level of violence by blacks against whites,
47 Columbia University (Ed.): The 70th annual Pulitzer Prizes..., New York, April 17, 1986, p. 3 (mimeographed). 48 Robert D. Ingle: Accompanying letter to the San Jose Mercury News exhibit, San Jose, Cal., January 27,1986, pp. 1 f. 49 Cf. Heinz-Dietrich Fischer (Ed.): Outstanding International Press Reporting, Vol. 3, op. cit., pp. 129 ff. 50 Columbia University (Ed.): The 71st Pulitzer Prizes..., New York, April 16, 1987, p. 3 (mimeographed). Heinz-Dietrich Fischer xxxiii xxxiv Introduction whites against blacks and blacks against blacks - were brought uncomfortably close in stories about the brutal warfare between black factions at the pathetic squatter settlement of Crossroads... Always well on top of the breaking news as well, Parks had prepared Times readers for the imposition of the state of emergency... Parks' uncompromising reporting," the letter to the jury closes, "did not go unnoticed by the authorities. At year's end, he was singled out by the Pretoria government and stood under threat of expulsion from the country. However, those who told him that his work permit would not be renewed could cite no story out of the 265 he filed in 1986 as inaccurate or unfair."51 This opinion was shared by the Pulitzer Board who gave the international award to Parks. A year later the award-winning topic went back to the Middle East. In 1988, the international correspondence prize was bestowed on Thomas L. Friedman of the New York Times for his reports from Israel.52 It was Friedman's second Pulitzer Prize in this award category after earning the honor five years earlier for reporting about similar topics in the same area. In the 1988 submission the editors of the New York Times told to the Pulitzer jury about Friedman: "In Israel, with an authority and independence of mind unusual in daily journalism, this superbly prepared correspondent, fluent in Arabic and Hebrew, delved far beneath the surface of everyday challenge-and-response reporting. His deeper subject became the struggle taking place inside the minds of the antagonists... On both sides, ambiguity and ambivalence began to undermine nationalist certitudes, a process that Mr. Friedman recognized early and charted more sensitively and doggedly than any other correspondent. On both sides too, he recognized that religious zealotry was on the rise and with it a basic antagonism to the very idea of common ground. There was a telling and depressing symmetry between Mr. Friedman's reporting in 1987 on the rise of Islamic fundamentalism among Israel's Arab minority and the rising influence and political power among Jews of a non- Zionist ultra-orthodox minority who regarded the modern Jewish state as an unfortunate aberration... Studying the portents, including the demographic trends that seemed bound to produce an Arab majority within a generation, Mr. Friedman was sometimes reminded of Lebanon's tragic fate... Mr. Friedman," the introductory remarks on his Pulitzer submission closes, "began 1987 with a telling front-page article on the rage of young Palestinians. The year ended with the worst explosion yet of that rage. Israeli officials blamed the unrest on terrorist 'agitators' and Western television crews. Our correspondent, more effectively than any other, pointed to its deeper causes,"53 and that was one of the reasons that Friedman earned his second Pulitzer Prize. Israel played an important role in the 1989 Pulitzer Prize category for international reporting, too, since one of the two award winners in this section was Glenn Frankel of the Washington Post who earned the prize for his articles from Israel and other Middle East regions.54 The reasons for submitting the Frankel articles to the Pulitzer competition are stated in an accompanying letter of the newspaper's Managing Editor to the Pulitzer Prize jurors: "The Palestinian uprising was 1988's biggest and longest-running story," the letter says, "and,
51 The Editors of the (Los Angeles) Times: Foreword to the exhibit re Michael Parks, undated (January 1987), p. 1. 52 Cf. Columbia University (Ed.): The 72nd Pulitzer Prizes..., New York, March 31,1988, p. 3. 53 The New Yoik Times: Preface to the Friedman exhibit, undated (January 1988), p. 1. 54 Columbia University (Ed.): The 73rd annual Pulitzer Prizes..., New York, March 30, 1989, p. 3. Heinz-Dietrich Fischer xxxv in our view, no one covered it better - with more tenacity, intelligence and authority - than Frankel. Between January 1 and December 31, 1988, he filed more than two-hundred stories on the uprising under increasingly difficult working conditions and harsh Israeli government press restrictions. At one point, his press credentials were suspended for almost a month for defying Israeli military censorship to break the story of Israel's role in the assassination of Abu Jihad. Reporting on the uprising was subjected to intense scrutiny by readers of Frankel's reporting and writing was distinguished not only by fairness beyond reproach but by repeatedly taking on the hardest questions, re-reporting controversial events and challenging assumptions uncritically accepted by others... Is Israel really like South Africa? Frankel, a former correspondent in South Africa for the Post, took on that comparison in a piece..., probably the first of its kind... The uprising continues to touch everyone in the region and destroy some of them. Frankel covered them all from the ground... Other pieces... round out what we view as an extraordinary year for Mr. Frankel, who concludes a three-year tour in Israel this year... ."'5 This praise did not go unheeded by the Pulitzer Board who gave an international reporting award to Glenn Frankel. The co-winner of Glenn Frankel in the 1989 Pulitzer International Reporting competition was Bill Keller of the New York Times who earned the award for his outstanding reporting from the Soviet Union during 1988.56 "In two years of stirring debate and upheaval in the Soviet Union," the editors of the Times had argued before the Pulitzer Prize jury, "Bill Keller has established himself as the most energetic and original reporter in the Moscow press corps. He also happens to be, we think, the keenest analyst and far and away the freshest and most compelling writer on what is the biggest story of the day. That is a large claim but this is one of those rare moments when an exceptional reporter fastens onto an exceptional story and does what no one else has really been able to do before; in this case, find his way through the barriers that have prevented direct access by Western reporters to Soviet life for nearly as long as the Soviet Union has existed. Mr. Keller's extraordinary output in 1988, touching every facet of Soviet life from rock music to corruption in Uzbekistan, from ideology to the ethnic challenges erupting in Armenia and the Baltics, contains enough articles of the highest caliber... Never facile, always down to earth, he seized the new opportunities that are suddenly - and still fitfully - available to foreign correspondents in the Soviet Union to engage his readers in the drama of Gorbachev's challenge to a backward and recalcitrant society. If there was a zenith of this reporter's year, it was his coverage of the tragic aftermath of the earthquake... The melding of telling details to large themes was what Mr. Keller's readers had learned to expect... For his grace, tirelessness and extraordinary keen insight in international affairs, Bill Keller deserves the Pulitzer Prize for reporting on international affairs."57 So it was seen by the Pulitzer Prize Board, too, which gave the co-award in this category to the New York Times' Moscow bureau chief. From Moscow the focus changed to Beijing in the 1990 Pulitzer Prize competition when Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn won the international reporting award "for
55 Leonard Downie, Jr.: Accompanying letter of Glenn Frankel's exhibit of the Washington Post, Washington, D.C., January 17,1989, pp. 1 f. 56 Columbia University (Ed.): The 73rd annual Pulitzer Prize, op. cit, p. 3. 57 The editors of the New York Times: Foreword to the Bill Keller's exhibit, undated (January 1989), p. 1. XXXVI Introduction Bill Keller, Moscow correspondent for The New YorkTimes, wins a 1989 Pulitzer Prize
For his graceful, tireless and extraordinarily keen Then, reaching beyond grisly detail, he wrote of the coverage of the Soviet Union, Bill Keller has won a 1989 drama of a compulsively secretive society opening itself Pulitzer Prize for international reporting. to succor from outside. Without question. 1988 was a year of stirring debate and Mr. Keller was the first correspondent to cultivate the upheaval in the Soviet Union. Mr. Keller's achievement Soviet youth scene as well as the environmental and was not simply to cover two superpower summit citizen action groups suddenly developing outside the meetings, a leader's seemingly perilous struggle with his party. He was the first correspondent to establish contact own Communist party, or the century's most destructive with returning veterans of the war in Afghanistan. He earthquake. Rather, it was the manner in which Mr. negotiated a survey of Muscovite opinion with a Moscow Keller covered these events and. even more, the way he polling institute. kept pressing beyond the obvious to close in on underlying realities. In all this coverage, there was a fascinating work in progress: Mr. Keller's portrait of Mikhail Gorbachev. Mr. Keller's extraordinary output last year also touched The year 1988 saw Mr. Keller follow Mr. Gorbachev numerous other facets of Soviet life—from rock music to through such triumphs and struggles as the party corruption in Uzbekistan, from ideology to the ethnic conference, the Politburo reshuffling and his December challenges erupting in Armenia and the Baltics. And. of visit to New York. course, a major story of the reporter's year was the Throughout his coverage of the Soviet Union in 1988, devastating earthquake that struck Armenia last Mr. Keller worked side-bv-side with two talented December. colleagues—Philip Taubman. the Moscow bureau chief, An experienced backpacker. Mr. Keller several times and Felicity Barringer. Mr. Keller was promoted to hitchhiked his way around a 160-mile circuit of the Moscow bureau chief in January of this year, and now earthquake zone as he shunled from Yerevan, the works with Francis X. Gines, one of The Times's most Armenian capital, to the flattened towns of Leninakan gifted correspondents. When his 1989 Pulitzer Prize was and Spitak. He wrote of local citizens "who have become announced, Mr. Keller was en route to Havana for a experts in the logistics of sudden death." of hollow-eyed planned meeting between Gorbachev and Fidel Castro. families imagining they heard the cries of trapped Thus does an excepnonal reporter continue to follow an children as they squatted by the ruins of their homes. exceptional story. The New York Times extends its tradition of prize-winning journalism to papers throughout the world via The New York Times News Service. For details call John Brewer, executive editor, at (212) 556-1927. N!YiT| Sbc jXcUi jîork Ehnes News Service
\Source: Editor & Publisher (New York), Vol. 122/No. 16, April 22, 1989, p. 33.] Heinz-Dietrich Fischer xxxvii knowledgeable reporting from China on the mass movement for democracy and its subsequent suppression" in May, 1989.58 In that "year of epochal foreign stories," the New York Times wrote in its recommendation to the Pulitzer Prize jury, "the most strenuous and difficult to cover was the Beijing spring, the sudden flowering and eventual crushing... The story tested a wide range of reportorial skills. It demanded reporters who could empathize - in Chinese - with young students full of Utopian hopes and, at the same time, cooly keep track of an unfolding and increasingly complicated power struggle in the Chinese leadership- Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, a young husband-and-wife team, brought all that and more to their peerless coverage for the New York Times. They stayed close to the story from its inception.. Together they provided the most sustained and sensitive coverage of China's upheaval, between them filing an astonishing total of 131 articles in the peak months of May and June: a staggering 50 of these articles on our front page in those two months. But it is not the impressive bulk of their coverage that prompts us to nominate them for a Pulitzer Prize. It is the articles themselves, which day in and day out set a consistendy high standard for first- hand reporting, political interpretation and honest, strong writing. From the very start, Mr. Kristof stayed abreast of this fast-moving, elusive story... When the student demonstrations gathered..., he was quick to spot the growing involvement of industrial workers. Throughout the early weeks of the crisis, he maintained excellent sources close to the contending factions in the communist leadership... At the same time, Ms WuDunn was delving into the hopes and aspirations that propelled the students... ."59 The Pulitzer Prize jury as well as the Board were impressed by the excellent work of Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn and bestowed the international reporting prize on the able and courageous couple of reporters. In brief, the following listing shows all annual award-winners from 1978-1989 together with the Pulitzer Prize jury members of the International Reporting category in the specific years:
For Articles from 1978 - Awarded in 1979 Award Winner: Richard B. Cramer, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia, Pa. Jury Members (March, 1979): Robert C. Bergenheim, Boston Herald American, Boston, Mass. Judith W. Brown, The Herald, New Britain, Conn. Michael Gartner, The Des Moines Register, Des Moines, la. Charles A. King, Ottaway Newspapers, Campbell Hall, N.Y.
For Articles from 1979 - Awarded in 1980 Award Winners: Joel Brinkley, The Courier-Journal, Louisville, Ky. Jay Mather, The Courier-Journal, Louisville, Ky. Jury Members (March, 1980): Charles L. Bennett, Colorado Springs Sun, Colorado Springs, Col. William H. Cowles III., Spokesman-Review, Spokane, Wash. B. Dale Davis, The Bulletin, Philadelphia, Pa. Charles K. McClatchy, The Sacramento Bee, Sacramento, Cal. Joseph M. Ungaio, Westchester Rockland Newspapers, White Plains, N.Y.
58 Columbia University (Ed.): The 74th annual Pulitzer Prizes..., New York, April 12, 1990, p. 3 (mimeographed). 59 The New York Times (Ed.): Preface to the exhibit by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, undated (January 1990), p. 1. xxxvm
For Articles from 1980 - Awarded in 1981 Award Winner: Shirley Christian, The Miami Herald, Miami Fla. Jury Members (March, 1981): Stephen D. Isaacs, The Minneapolis Star, Minneapolis, Minn. Timothy Leland, The Boston Globe, Boston Mass. Claude A. Lewis, Philadelphia Bulletin, Philadelphia, Pa. Lois Wille, Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago, Dl. Ronald D. Willnow, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, St. Louis, Mo.
For Articles from 1981 - Awarded in 1982 Award Winner: John Damton, New York Times, New York Jury Members (March, 1982): Creed C. Black, The Lexington Herald-Leader, Lexington, Ky. Frederick W. Hartmann, The Florida Times-Union, Jacksonville, Fla. John Hohenberg, University of Florida, Gainesville, Fla. Claude A. Lewis, Philadelphia Bulletin, Philadelphia, Pa. Dick Oliver, Daily News, New York
For Articles from 1982 - Awarded in 1983 Award Winners: Thomas L. Friedman, New York Times, New York Loren Jenkins, The Washington Post, Washington, D.C. Jury Members (March, 1983): James P. Gannon, The Des Moines Register, Des Moines, la. Ellen Goodman, The Boston Globe, Boston, Mass. Donald W. Gormley, Spokesman-Review, Spokane, Wash. David V. Hawpe, The Courier-Journal, Louisville, Ky. John Hohenberg, University of Miami, Coral Gables, Fla.
For Articles from 1983 - Awarded in 1984 Award Winner: Karen E. House, The Wall Street Journal, New York Jury Members (March, 1984): John Hohenberg, Syracuse University, Syracuse, N.Y. Scott McGhee, Detroit Free Press, Detroit, Mich. Les Payne, Newsday, Long Island, N.Y. Arnold Rosenfeld, The Dayton Daily News, Dayton, Oh. David Schneiderman, The Village Voice, New York
For Articles from 1984 - Awarded in 1985 Award Winners: Dennis Bell, Newsday, Long Island, N.Y. Josh Friedman, Newsday, Long Island, N.Y. Ozier Muhammad, Newsday, Long Island, N.Y. Jury Members (March, 1985): Edward D. Casey, The Capital, Annapolis, Md. Sanders H. LaMont, The Modesto Bee, Modesto, Cal. Maxwell, McCrohon, United Press International, Washington, D.C. Angus McEachran, The Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh, Pa. H. Roger Tatarian, California State University, Fresno, Cal.
For Articles from 1985 - Awarded in 1986 Award Winners: Pete Carey, The Mercury News, San Jose, Cal. Katherine Ellison, The Mercury News, San Jose, Cal. Lewis M. Simon, The Mercury News, San Jose, Cal. Jury Members (March, 1986): Robert H. Estabrook, The Lakeville Journal, Lakeville, Conn. Heinz-Dietrich Fischer xxxix
Peter R. Kann, The Wall Street Journal, New York Angus McEachran, The Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh, Pa. Geneva Oveiholser, The Des Moines Register, Des Moines, la. H. Roger Tatarian, California State University, Fresno, Cal.
For Articles from 1986 - Awarded in 1987 Award Winner: Michael Parks, Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Jury Members (March, 1987): Robert H. Estabrook, The Lakeville Journal, Lakeville, Conn. John R. Hughes, The Christian Science Monitor, Boston, Mass. Peter R. Kann, The Wall Street Journal, New York Harry M. Rosenfeld, The Times-Union, Albany, N.Y. Alvin Shuster, Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles
For Articles from 1987 - Awarded in 1988 Award Winner: Thomas L. Friedman, New York Times, New York Jury Members (March, 1988): James I. Houck, The Baltimore Sun, Baltimore, Md. John R. Hughes, The Christian Science Monitor, Boston, Mass. Ronald S. Hutson, The Boston Globe, Boston, Mass. Saul Pett, The Associated Press, New York Hany M. Rosenfeld, The Times-Union, Albany, N.Y.
For Articles from 1988 - Awarded in 1989 Award Winners: Glenn Frankel, The Washington Post, Washington, D.C. Bill Keller, New York Times, New York Jury Members (March, 1989): David J. Anable, The Christian Science Monitor, Boston, Mass. Leonard Downie Jr., The Washington Post, Washington, D.C. Thomas L. Friedman, New York Times, New York Sig Gissler, The Milwaukee Journal, Milwaukee, Wise. Norma J. Sosa, Corpus Christi Caller-Times, Corpus Christi, Tex.
For Articles from 1989 - Awarded in 1990 Award Winners: Nicholas D. Kristof, New York Times, New York Sheryl WuDunn, New York Times, New York Jury Members (March, 1990): David J. Anable, Boston University, Boston, Mass. Thomas L. Friedman, New York Times, New York James M. Klurfeld, Newsday, Long Island, N.Y. Joseph R. L. Sterne, The Baltimore Sun, Baltimore, Md. Matthew V. Storm, Daily News, New York
Thus during the dozen years of the fourth period of the Pulitzer International Reporting Prize, the award went to no fewer than 20 journalists from the following nine newspapers: Courier-Journal, Lexington, Ky. (2 winners), Los Angeles Times (1 winner); Mercury News, San Jose, Cal. (3 winners), Miami Herald (1 winner), Newsday, Long Island, N.Y. (3 winners), New York Times (6 winners), Philadelphia Inquirer (1 winner), Wall Street Journal (1 winner), Washington Post (2 winners). There were up to three co-winners from one paper in several years; this period again shows a certain concentration on award-recipients from one major daily, the New York Times: the six winners from that paper received their honors in five different years. Even the Washington Post or the Los Angeles Times were not by far as xl Introduction
HENRY A. KISSINGER
November 13, 1989
Dear Punch:
Since I never seem to hesitate to let you hear from me when X think the Times has printed something wrong, I really feel I should also let you know when they have done something enormously right!
The cover story on China in Sunday's NY Times Magazine was not only extraordinarily good but in my view exceptionally accurate. It is also something desperately needed to provide a context for present American policy towards China. Congratulations to you and to the author on a first-rate piece of work.
Warm regards,
Henry A. lei's singer
Mr. Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Publisher The New York Times 229 West 43rd Street New York, N.Y. 10036
TWENTY-SIXTH FLOOR • 350 PARK AVENUE NEW YORK. NEW YORK 10022 • (212) 759-7919 TELEFAX 1212) 759-0042
Letter from Henry Kissinger as part of a New York Times entry Heinz-Dietrich Fischer xli successful as the Times. It also should be pointed out that - in general - the Pulitzer Prize winners from bigger papers normally were "regular" foreign correspondents based in major cities of the world, while the recipients from smaller papers mostly were special correspondents or teams covering only specific events or topics and returning to their editorial headquarters afterwards because of the high costs of foreign correspondents' posts.60 Beside the formal professional status of a Pulitzer Prize winner in the International Reporting category there is also the question of the "type" of his reporting. In general, "Pulitzer Prizes and other awards in journalism are typically given for excellence in investigative or analytic reporting, not for the size of (the) audience a newsman appeals to, or for efficiency in meeting deadlines,"61 one observer states. And John Hohenberg makes this statement about this group: "The average foreign correspondent is no devil-may-care youngster risking his neck on some foolish but glamourous exploit, but a rather sedate and settled family man of good background and education. He travels a great deal from his established base, which is changed every two or three years. If he has to take risks in his sometimes hazardous routine, he does so because it is part of the job - not just for the fun of it. In war zones, particularly in a guerilla war, he is every bit as valid a target as a soldier to an enemy who seldom observes the Geneva Convention."62 Beside of this basic problem there do exist - worldwide - numerous barriers and restrictions preventing foreign correspondents from doing their job free from outside influences. "Correspondents working in foreign countries," the so-called MacBride Commission of UNESCO stressed, "risk retaliatory measures if they offend repressive governments, with the additional disadvantage that they may not be supported by editors or proprietors anxious to maintain representation. Admittedly, the penalty incurred by the foreign correspondent is likely to be expulsion while the journalist working in his own country may have to reckon with imprisonment, torture or even a death sentence. But in times of disturbance, foreign correspondents have been maltreated and sometimes killed by military or para-military forces... The question has therefore long been raised of whether journalists need special guarantees or special protection to ensure that they can do their work."63 So the UNESCO Commission recommended in its report that "all countries should take steps to assure admittance of foreign correspondents and facilitate their collection and transmission of news. Special obligations in this regard, undertaken by the signatories to the Final Act of the Helsinki conference,64 should be honoured and, indeed, liberally applied. Free access to news sources by journalists is an indispensable requirement fo accurate, faithful and balanced reporting. This necessarily involves access to unofficial, as well as
60 To get an idea about the costs for foreign correspondence during one single year, cf. Erika J. Fischer/Heinz-Dietrich Fischer: The New York Times' Facing World War II. Articles, Maps and Statistics from a Pulitzer Prize-winning Exhibit, Frankfurt a.M. - Bern - New York - Paris: Peter Lang, 1990, pp. 14 ff. 61 John W. C. Johnson et al.: The New People. A Sociological Portrait of American Journalists and Their Work, Urbana - Chicago - London: University of Illinois Press, 1976, p. 128. 62 John Hohenberg: The Professional Journalist - A Guide to Practices and Principles of the New Media, 2. ed„ New York - Chicago etc.: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1969, p. 432. 63 UNESCO (Ed.): Many Voices, One World. Toward a new more just and more efficient world information and communication order, Paris - New York: UNESCO/Kogan Page, 1980, p. 235. 64 Cf. Hermann Voile/Wolfgang Wagner (Eds.): KSZE. Konferenz uber Sicherheit und Zusammenarbeit in Europa, Bonn/FRG: Verlag fur Internationale Politik, 1976, pp. 127 ff. xlii Introduction
THE PULITZER PRIZE BOARD
PRESIDENT MICHAEL I. SOVERN Columbia University
JOAN KONNER, Dean (ex-of£rio) Graduate School of Journalism
RUSSELL BAKER, Columnist .... The New York Times
SISSELA BOK, Professor Brandeis University
MICHAEL GARTNER, President NBC News Editor The Daily Tribune, Ames, Iowa MEG GREENFIELD, Editorial Page Editor ...... The Washington Post
JAMES F. HOGE, JR., Publisher . . . New York Daily News
PETER R. KANN, Publisher ... The Wall Street Journal
DAVID A. LAVENTHOL, President . . . Times Mirror Company Publisher and Chief Executive Officer . . Los Angeles Times
ROBERT C. MAYNARD, Editor and Publisher The Tribune, Oakland, California
BURL OSBORNE, Editor and President . . . . . The Dallas Morning News
GENEVA OVERHOLSER, Editor . . The Des Moines Register
JAMES V. RISSER, Director . . John S. Knight Fellowships, Stanford University EUGENE L. ROBERTS, JR., Executive Editor and President . . The Philadelphia Inquirer
WALTER RUGABER, President and Publisher Roanoke (Va.) Times & World-News
CHARLOTTE SAIKOWSKI, former Chief of Washington Bureau . The Christian Science Monitor
CLAUDE F. SITTON, Editor and Vice President . . . The News and Observer, Raleigh, N.C.
ROBERT C. CHRISTOPHER, Secretary .... Graduate School nf Journalism
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY NEW YORK, N.Y. 10027 Heinz-Dietrich Fischer xliii
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65 UNESCO (Ed.): Many Voices, One World, op. cit., p. 263. 66 John Weisman: Ignorants Abroad. Sometimes the wrong people end up assigned to the hottest international stories, in: TV Guide (Radnor, Pa.), Vol. 31/No. 22, May 28,1983, pp. 3 ff. 67 Walter Laqueur: Foreign News Coverage - From Bad to Worse, in: Washington Journalism Review (Washington, D.C.), Vol. 5/No. 5, June 1983, pp. 32 f., 35.