stevemullis[dot]net

Jeff Jarvis of Buzzmachine: “…the Pulitzer Prize is bad for journalism, turning the profession into a circle-jerk of mutual self-love.”

Gawker’s Nick Denton agrees, and he cleverly uses a screen grab from season five of David Simon’s ‘The Wire.’ That season’s focus on the fictional version of the Baltimore Sun and its Pulitzer-chasing ways exemplified what Jarvis is saying. If you haven’t seen ‘The Wire’ yet, A) I’m not your friend, and B) You still have time, do and buy it, download it or steal it from a friend. All five seasons are worth your time, but I digress.

I have to say, even being relatively green in the business still, that I have to agree with both Denton’s and Jarvis’ sentiment about Pulitzers.

Pulitzer Prizes should be an ancillary benefit to good journalism, not the endgame. Journalists, online and print, radio and TV, should not approach a story or a package with the twinkle of the prize in their eyes. It should be approached with the desire to tell a good story and do good journalism. If that desire is genuine, it will shine through and the prize(s) will come in.

Yeah, my idealism has yet to be washed away or beaten into submission by the nastiness that can exist in this business.

Don’t get me wrong however, if something I did or was part of ever won a Pulitzer Prize I would accept it with nothing but gratitude and shit-eating grin.