Awarded to the Las Vegas Sun, and notably the courageous reporting by Alexandra Berzon, for the exposure of the high death rate among construction workers on the Las Vegas Strip amid lax enforcement of regulations, leading to changes in policy and improved safety conditions.Head to the Las Vegas Sun to see the award-winning work and some terrific online presentations, too. While Berzon deserves most of the glory here, the category honors the overall effort of the news organization and content that includes "editorials, cartoons, photographs, graphics and online material."
And since the Sun folks probably won't do this, allow me the honor of rubbing it in the face of the Classiest Publisher in America. Having to do this...
...must just KILL him. I just can't wait to see how they cover it in tomorrow's Las Vegas Sun wrap-around. I'd love to think that this might motivate the R-J chiefs to kick it up a notch and give some of their terrific reporters the time, money and opportunity to do the sort of work, but that's just crazy talk!
13 comments:
Congratulations on some hometown awards!
Terrific and insightful reporting on Berzon's part.
That is crazy talk.
"courageous"?
Alas, Steve, I fear you're too optimistic. I would bet the reaction of the R-J will be one of complacency, and the award will be dismissed as a "liberal" institution awarding a "liberal" newspaper for its "liberal" crusading. Meanwhile, the R-J will go on to win several nice awards in the local journalism contest, perhaps even a first place or two.
What terrific reporters at the RJ? The best that can be said of RJ reporters is that they always do what their boss wants and that they are easily led around by the nose. There are dozens of scandals in this town that everyday folks are aware of but no RJ repoter will ever cover them cause Daddy Fredericks doesn't want them to do so. NOTHING will ever get anyone a Pulitzer while they are at the RJ- the worse "big city" paper in America.
Congratulations to Alexandra and the Las Vegas Sun. Hank, Ruthe, Mike and Sandy are cheering.Listen for a mighty clap of thunder!
Note that the R-J merely posted the AP story as-is and didn't update it. Not to mention the subhed its copy editors added: "Papers win Pulitzers for bringing down gov, mayor" Yeah, those damn libruls and their gotcha journalism! I'm pleased and not surprised to see your update about the classier members of the R-J newsroom. Just don't hold your breath waiting on those kudos from the Sherminator.
This is the perfect time for me to ask; how does the Sun work? It doesn't seem to function like a "normal" newspaper, with international, national, state, local, Dear Abby and classifieds, etc. How does it make its money? I love the Sun, but, it looks to me like it is not driven by making money at all, just getting a story. This is admirable, but how do they pay for this?
Jeff in OKC
I don't understand why winning a Pulitzer at the Sun is "humiliating" to the R-J. I don't read either of these papers but I think Steve is injecting his hatred of the R-J into this post. Also, I don't think a story about the deaths at City Center is a right/left issue. Construction site safety is a concern for everyone. Finally, I think the Pulitzer organization does favor left wing issues, this one is not one of them, and when they gave a terrorist, Yassir Arafat, the Pulitzer Peace prize, I lost all respect for the awards. To me they are meaningless.
Dude, that was the Nobel Peace Prize...
Jeff: It is one of the little flaws in the idea that the Sun can be an example for other publications. It has no business model, except maybe for selling ads on the web. The joint operating agreement gives it a small share of ad revenue the R-J generates, so the R-J handles all the business aspects. Plus, the Greenspun family pumps lots of their own money into it. There are no ads in the Sun. It works in this arrangement, but it would be unsustainable without the R-J deal.
So the R-J is the Sun's sugar daddy AND it's story tip sheet? Must be nice.
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003964418
well, the deaths were going to be reported anyway and that's not the Sun's function. But nobody at the r-j decided to hunker down and really dig into what was happening beyond catching folks drinking on the job which probably had nothing to do with anything but was sensational, no doubt. You don't get a Pulitzer for covering the obvious stories. you get one for seeing beyond that. And if the R-J folks were actually visionary about being the sugar daddy, they'd spent their money on allowing their own reporters to do this kind of thing. Again, they have their own paper and they don't do it. They don't get credit for what the Sun accomplishes.
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