The Los Angeles Times and The New York Times each won two coveted Pulitzer Prizes for journalism on Monday, and for the first time no award was given for breaking news coverage.
The Los Angeles Times, whose publisher Tribune Company filed for bankruptcy in 2008, won the public service award for exposing corruption in the Californian city of Bell where officials paid themselves large salaries.
The coverage led to arrests and reforms. Los Angeles Times photographer, Barbara Davidson, was awarded the feature photography Pulitzer for her pictures of bystanders trapped in the cross-fire of Los Angeles gang violence.
The New York Times’ Clifford J Levy and Ellen Barry won in the international reporting category for putting “a human face on the faltering justice system in Russia, remarkably influencing the discussion inside the country.”
David Leonhardt of the New York Times won the commentary Pulitzer for “his graceful penetration of America’s complicated economic questions, from the federal budget deficit to health care reform.”
The Pulitzer Prizes honour journalism, books, drama and poetry and are awarded annually by the Pulitzer Prize Board at New York City’s Columbia University. Each winner receives $10 000.
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For the first time no prize was awarded for breaking news.
Sig Gissler, the administrator of the Pulitzer Prizes, said there had been 25 other occasions when awards were not given in some categories.