Today, the Pulitzer Prizewinners and Nominated Finalists will be announced. No doubt that some worthy reporters will gets some hardware. For example, last year muckrackers from the Post won for probing Abramoff-related congressional corruption and the San Diego Union-Tribune staff were awarded for busting open the Cunningham story.
But, Josh Marshall deserves serious consideration....
...He and his muckrackers at TPM saw a serious story in the purge-gate back when the ivory towers of traditional media scoffed. And, since then, the same ivory towers and others have noticed what we've known all along - that Josh rocks as a reporter:
- "How TalkingPointsMemo Beat the Big Boys on the U.S. Attorney Story" - Columbia Journalism Review
- "Talking Points Memo drove the U.S. attorneys story, proof that Web writers with input from devoted readers can reshape journalism." Terry McDermott, L.A. Times
- "Joshua Marshall's Talking Points Memo, earned plaudits for its work in uncovering and illuminating the latest Bush administration scandal -- the partisan firing of several U.S. attorneys." Robert Niles, USC Annenberg Center for Communication
- "My hat is off. Josh Marshall at TalkingPointsMemo and everyone else out there whose instincts told them there was something deeply wrong and even sinister about the firings, and who dug around and kept writing about them while Iglesias decided whether to talk to the press or go quietly on to his next job, deserve tremendous credit." - Jay Carney, Time
Now, being the journalistic spear that exposed this scandal should be enough to earn him a Pulitzer, shouldn't it? But let's build that resume. As McDemott is quoted above, Josh is reshaping journalism. The use of reader-generated tips and comments, ever-evolving and up-to-the minute commentary and reporting, and all the other attributes of blogging merged with serious sourced reporting is creating a new genre of journalism. And not satisfied to rest on his previous ingenuity, Josh has already moved to the next level with his new, amazing YouTube reports that break down his reporting into easy to understand video clips.
So, maybe it won't happen this year. The Pulitzer people were probably too busy sifting through newsprint and washing ink off their hands to notice Josh reshaping the media under their feet. But one day, Josh Marshall better be looking up from his desk and admiring a Pulitzer that he had already earned over and over again.
(UPDATE: As some have pointed out in the comments, Josh's work on purge-gate (virtually all calendar 2007) would be eligible for the 2008 Pulitzer, so consider this diary my nomination as such. I'm sure Josh did something Pulitzer-worthy in calendar 2006, but I also agree with many below that the Firedoglake crew also deserve some hardware for their coverage of Plamegate and the Libby trial.)