the pulitzer prizes 2004
the winners of the prestigious pulitzer prizes for excellence in journalism, literature and the arts were today.the los angeles times topped the list winning five of the awards for its coverage of the devastating wildfire outbreak in southern california last autumn Breaking news), and its examination of the tactics that have made wal-mart the largest company in the world (national reporting). the paper was also recognised for its criticism, editorial writing and feature photography, winning the most pulitzers of any publication.
a few interesting facts: the awards are bestowed in twenty-one categories by columbia university's graduate school of journalism on the recommendation of an independent eighteen-member pulitzer board.
more than two thousand entries are submitted each year in the competition. a total of one hundred and two judges who serve on twenty separate juries make three nominations for finalists in each of the award categories. judges include journalists, news executives, playwrights, composers, critics and university officials.
this year the board did not award the prize in the feature writing category – the first time since the category was added in 1979. the last time there was no award in a category was in 1993 for editorial writing.
overall, the journalism prize has not been awarded twenty-four times in the eighty years it's been presented.
each prize consists of us$10.000, except for public service category of the journalism competition, which is recognised with a gold medal. the public service prize is always awarded to a newspaper, not an individual, although an individual may be named in the citation.
john f kennedy is the only US president to receive a pulitzer prize. he was awarded the 1957 prize in biography for his book «profiles in courage».
