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Chicago Tribune columnist Mary Schmich won the Pulitzer Prize in commentary on Monday. Nice honor for her. While he was congratulating her, Tribune chief exec Eddy Hartenstein also feted the Los Angeles Times staffers who were named finalists. Those would be columnist Steve Lopez and photographers Carolyn Cole, Brian van der Brug and Francine Orr. Hartenstein is also publisher of the Times.
From: Tribune Communications
Sent: Monday, April 16, 2012 2:44 PM
Subject: Message from Eddy Hartenstein/2012 Pulitzer Prizes
Colleagues,
This year’s Pulitzer Prize winners and finalists were announced a short time ago, and once again Tribune is well-represented by its outstanding journalists.
Chicago Tribune columnist Mary Schmich has been awarded the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary. The Pulitzer Prize Board cited Mary for the wide range of her “down-to-earth columns that reflect the character and capture the culture of her famed city.” Mary’s entry included a column about the conviction of former Governor Rod Blagojevich on corruption charges, another regarding a lesson her father taught her about the nature of being poor, and a column written in verse about Chicago’s Mayor Richard Daley.
Steve Lopez, of the Los Angeles Times, also was named a finalist for commentary, for a series of “engaging” columns on death and dying, including several about his own father’s mental and physical decline.
Gary Marx and David Jackson of the Chicago Tribune were named as finalists in the category of Investigative Journalism, for a series of stories about a state justice system “that allowed dozens of brutal criminals to evade punishment by fleeing the country.” The Pulitzer Jury cited the two journalists for sparking calls for a change in the law.
Finally, three photographers at the Los Angeles Times earned honors as finalists in the Pulitzer’s photography categories. Carolyn Cole and Brian van der Brug were recognized in the Breaking News Photography category for what the jury said was “their illumination of epic disasters in Japan, documenting the brutality of nature as well as the durability of the human spirit.” In the Feature Photography category, Francine Orr was cited for her “poignant portrait of the suffering by desperate families and misunderstood children who live with autism.”
Please join me in congratulating Mary, Steve, Gary, David, Carolyn, Brian and Francine for their worthy achievements and today’s recognition by the Pulitzer Prize Board. Our journalists around the world do an outstanding job online, in print and on the air, and provide us with a distinct advantage over our peers—they make us all proud.
More importantly, however, they inform the public debate and discourse, and enable people to make smart decisions—and that is when journalism is at its best.
eddy
