The number of such lobbying efforts was greater this year than any time since the board decided in 1994 to let Pulitzer juries see outside challenges, according to Seymour Topping, administrator of the prizes in journalism and the arts.
This year's winners are being announced today.
Pulitzer juries consider hundreds of entries submitted by newspapers in 14 categories and nominate three for the coveted prizes. The Pulitzer Prize Board at Columbia University chooses the winners.
Topping said he personally screens the challenges and then passes along those with substance to the juries.
He said the challenges all have been in the newspaper categories, none in arts and letters.
The efforts to influence the outcome, first reported by The New York Times, was described as beneficial by some board members and former jurors.
"I welcome them," said Geneva Overholser, chair of the Pulitzer board and ombudsman of The Washington Post. "It's better to hear about a problem before rather than after."
"Unless an entry's going to be at the top of the list, you don't pay attention to the complaint. If it is, I want to know everything about it," said board member Andrew Barnes, editor, president and CEO of the St. Petersburg Times in Florida.
Matt Storin, editor of The Boston Globe, which entered a series on police misconduct, said: "Challenges are legitimate, but should be withheld until an entry makes it to the finals."
The Globe stories prompted a complaining letter from the police department to the entire Pulitzer board and attracted national attention after the newspaper reported the police had obtained a copy of the newspaper's entry, which Storin called a private document.
Storin said five-member juries burdened with judging as many as 150 entries don't have time to consider a challenge in detail and might use it as a way to pare the list.
William German, editor of the San Francisco Chronicle, said he wouldn't want to encourage complaining letters.
"But part of the rules should be that whoever's accused is given a chance to respond. Then trust the jurors and the board to be just," German said.
The Chronicle submission of a series on the way disabled children are assigned to foster care was the target of a complaint.
04-14-98
| Previous Article |
should be sent to: daily.letters@umich.edu | should be sent to: online.daily@umich.edu |