No serious discussion would contain National Enquirer and Pulitzer Prize in the same sentence, until now.
On Thursday afternoon, Washington Post staff writer, Howard Kurtz broke news of Enquirer executive editor Barry Levine’s intention to submit his paper’s writings on the discreditable behaviour of John Edwards for one of the prestigious prizes. “It’s clear we should be a contender for this,” Levine is quoted as saying.
As shocking as the tabloid’s sensational covers is that three years of Enquirer coverage on the issue was vindicated by the former presidential candidate’s confession yesterday stating that he had fathered a child with his mistress.
In 2008, after the tabloid broke news of Edward’s affair and published a photo of him with an unidentified baby, the former senator denied being the father on ABC’s Nightline. A year-and-a-half later, he chose to finally admit it to NBC.
Before you go declaring the end of journalism as we know it, note that the 2010 Pulitzer only considers publications from 2009, which excludes much of the paper’s ’07/’08 reporting on the matter.
Still, it’s frightening to consider a Pulitzer Prize winning Enquirer.
About the author
Jordan Hay was the Front of Book Editor for the Summer 2010 issue of the Ryerson Review of Journalism.