Reaction Pours In For LV Sun's Pulitzer

Some of the R-J folks are showing a little class in the midst of the humiliation that was the Las Vegas Sun's triumph as a Pulitzer Prize winner proving that investing money and resources in quality journalism is not only good for the community but also -- gasp! -- prestigious.

R-J City Editor Mary Hynes sent a congratulatory note to lead reporter Alexandra Berzon and columnist John L. Smith heralded the news with a blog post in which he took a minor swipe at his own paper by beginning, "I always wanted to work for a newspaper that delivered a Pulitzer Prize-winning story to its readers, but I never imagined it would happen this way." And over at Poynter.Org, the industry's digital watercooler, some are conjecturing that the Pulitzer folks are making a direct statement in favor of the kind of exploratory reporting the Sun does over the work-a-day stuff the R-J does.

Even U.S. Sen. Harry Reid gets in the act with a call to Berzon and this on the front of his website:



So, any good wishes publicly for Berzon from the Classiest Publisher in America? Uh, no. It's not that he didn't have the time; he managed a blog post today about the impact of week-old anti-tax demonstrations. Sure, he could have done what Smith and Hynes did, appreciate the significance of the moment for our community. But, no. He's too busy dwelling in the pettiness that explains why his own paper's never come close to such an accomplishment.