By Allan Lengel
ticklethewire.com
WASHINGTON — It goes without saying, the media and law enforcement don’t always see eye to eye.
But there are certainly plenty times when the media, like law enforcement, works for the good of the public, unearthing injustice, exposing criminal wrongdoing.
The Pulitizer Prizes are one way of acknowledging some of the great work journalists do. It’s particularly noteworthy at a time when the business is contracting, when some are papers are folding, when budgets are shrinking and some of the best journalists are getting laid off or are simply opting for other work.
So it’s with a lot of joy today that I congratulate some of my favorite folks in newspapers for winning Pulitzer Prizes. I’d like to give a particularly hearty congrats to Jim Schaefer and M.L. Elrick of the Detroit Free Press, two great reporters, who won a Pulitzer for local reporting on the text message scandal in Detroit that ultimately resulted in Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick stepping down and going to jail.
I’d also like to offer a congrats to former Washington Post colleague Gene Robinson, a thought provoking columnist, who deservingly won a Pulizter for commentary; and former Post colleague Serge Kovaleski, a dogged reporter with an amusing sense of humor, who was part of the New York Times team that won a Pulitzer for breaking news on the fascinating story about Gov. Eliot Spitzer. The governor eventually resigned.
There hasn’t been a lot of good news about newspapapers these days. But this is good news. Some good folks got the recognition they deserved.
