2006 D.C. Pulitzers

The Washington City Paper's Erik Wemple and John Metcalfe turn in their own nominations for Pulitzer Prizes...for the Washington-area only. As is often the case with the City Paper, the awards are accompanied with a healthy dose of sarcasm. The winners: Public Service: The staff of Washingtonian, for "Great Hair" (The rub: "Rarely has service journalism set out such an ambitious agenda. The package included everything from a testimonial on "Why thermal straightening was worth every penny" to a testimonial on '[H]ow thermal straightening ruined my hair.'") Beat Reporting: "Anne Hull, the Washington Post, for journalism about her neighborhood, including a two-part series on gentrification near Logan Circle, as well as pieces on a Logan Circle restaurant and a Logan Circle supermarket" (The rub: Hull lives right near the area she reported on. "This proximity to her story enabled Hull to practice a form of immersion journalism rarely glimpsed on the pages of U.S. newspapers...Never before has the board seen a journalist choose living quarters with such foresight.") International Reporting: "Robert G. Kaiser, Washington Post associate editor, for stories and commentary on Finland. (The rub: "The Post and Kaiser also broke ground in conveying the more day-to-day aspects of life in Finland, an area of foreign reporting that newspapers, given their formal, news-driven leanings, have long neglected....The following example from Kaiser's Web log is characteristic. It narrates what took place when the reporter and photographer (Lucian Perkins) went to ladies' night at the Karelia Hotel in Joensuu..." Criticism: Mark Schlereth, football critic, Washington Examiner. (The rub: Schlereth, a former Redskin who played under Gibbs, waxed romantic about Gibbs, with such articles as "Gibbs still the man for the job" and "Turns out, Gibbs' way is right way.") Breaking-news photography: "Keith Kreger, the InTowner, for a photograph of a facade." (The rub: Wemple and Metcalfe loved this photo caption: "This winter 2005 view clearly shows the complex of buildings that are to be integrated into a unified whole. To the right can be seen the row of two-story houses starting west of the rear alley and extending to 15th Street. Not shown in this view are the larger townhouses and taller apartment buildings directly across on the north side of T Street.") Investigative Reporting: "Washington Post Style reporters for local weather coverage." (The rub: "The sight of gently falling snowflakes has driven many a reporter to pen and paper. The board can recall such past Style entries as 'The Crisp, Versatile Language of Snow,' 'The Embracing, Crystalline Silence of Snowfall,' 'A Clear Path: Shoveling Snow Leaves Time to Think Along Life's Road,' and 'Blanketed by Metaphor: The Literature of Snow, Deeper Than You Thought.'") Editorial Writing: "Jerry Seper, Washington Times, for a series of articles on the Minuteman Project." (The rub: "The board admires Seper's ability to stay on message. It no doubt must have been difficult, considering the negative stories about the Minutemen being published in other papers around the world.") Feature Writing: "Rafael Valero, the InTowner, for 'An Adams Morgan Essay: Four O'clock in the A.M. Friday, June 10, 2005'" (The rub: "Valero dropped readers into the heat of the action without a compass or map to determine where they were or what was going on.")

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2006 D.C. Pulitzers

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