For Five Years, The Pulitzer Prizes Have Rewarded Misinformation

For Five Years, The Pulitzer Prizes Have Rewarded Misinformation - BY: MARK HEMINGWAY

• This many high-profile failures in such a short time makes winning a Pulitzer look definitively like a mark of ignominy.

The way the Pulitzer Prizes work seems simple enough – an Ivy league university hands out annual awards that ostensibly recognize important journalism. 

In practice, however, my former colleague Phil Terzian, a Pulitzer finalist who has served on the nominating committee, described the inner workings of the Pulitzers this way:

The Pulitzer Prizes are a singularly corrupt institution, administered by Columbia University and the management of the New York Times largely for the benefit of the New York Times and a limited number of favored publications and personalities. 

Any citizen who thinks that the annual distribution of awards has something to do with quality probably believes that the Oscar for Best Picture goes to the most distinguished film of the year...