Sex sells (and wins Pulitzers)

Posted at 2:06 PM on April 20, 2009 by Than Tibbetts (2 Comments)
Filed under: Media

This year's Pulitzer Prizes were just announced. Here's the bulletin from the AP:

The New York Times took five Pulitzers on Monday, including one for breaking the call-girl scandal that destroyed Gov. Eliot Spitzer's political career.

And the Detroit Free Press won for local reporting for obtaining a trove of sexually explicit text messages that brought down the city's mayor.

Is this all that's left of top-notch journalism? Surely there's more to great reporting than politicians getting their jollies...

(Yes, I realize Kwame Kilpatrick's sexting adventures came in the context of a felony investigation.)

Update: More uplifting copy from the AP's story...

No Pulitzers were awarded for coverage of the biggest financial crisis since the Depression. And despite a rule change that allowed online-only news organizations to compete for Pulitzers for the first time, none of them won any prizes.

The awards were announced after one of the most depressing years the newspaper industry has ever seen, with layoffs, bankruptcies and closings brought on by the recession and an exodus of readers and advertisers to the Internet.

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Comments (2)

Memo from MPR management to Bob Collins:

Spice it up a bit, Bob.

We need that Pulitzer!

Posted by Bob Moffitt | April 20, 2009 2:21 PM

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yes, will be looking forward to the newscut sexcapades in future

Posted by Bonnie | April 20, 2009 4:57 PM

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