Oregonian Wins a Pulitzer

Jeff Alworth

The Oregonian picked up a Pulitzer Prize yesterday for reporting Rick Attig and Doug Bates did on the Oregon State Hospital.  (Read the series here.)  Here's what the Pulitzer board had to say:

For distinguished editorial writing, the test of excellence being clearness of style, moral purpose, sound reasoning, and power to influence public opinion in what the writer conceives to be the right direction, in print....  Awarded to Rick Attig and Doug Bates of The Oregonian, Portland, for their persuasive, richly reported editorials on abuses inside a forgotten Oregon mental hospital.

It is an especially nice win because one of the competitors were writers at the Biloxi Sun Herald, who plead for support in the wake of hurricane Katrina.

This could easily go in the "in the news" category, but I wanted to add a personal comment.  The Oregonian takes a lot of heat on BlueOregon (for example, as recently as five days ago), and I think most of it is justified.  Any paper that publishes dozens of articles each day is going to come in for some criticism.  We don't do the O any favors by overlooking them.

We go round and round about the quality of the Oregonian's product, and often I see in comments that people think the paper is a worthless rag.  But if there's any objective measure to test that theory, Pulitzers are it.  They are juried by other journalists, and awarded for the quality of the work itself, not the name on the masthead.  Winning a Pulitzer is a huge affirmation.

The Oregonian has won four Pulitzers since 1999, which puts it in pretty good company--a lot of city papers don't win Pulitzers, or win them only rarely.  The Oregonian has made a clear decision to invest in serious pieces, and they've been rewarded.  We should continue to criticize the paper when it makes mistakes, or when we wonder about unseen bias.  But we also need to give the O its due.  This is an impressive victory. 

Hats off to the O!

By Jeff Alworth April 18, 2006