Transcripts For CSPAN3 Book Discussion On Pulitzers Gold 201

Prize winning reporters Elizabeth Mehren and Sacha Pfeiffer. They focus on the future of community and Public Service journalism, which they deem fundamental to service life. This was recorded in Brookline Booksmith in brookline, massachusetts. 2016 marks the centennial of the Pulitzer Prize in this years crisis will be announced on april 18. Thank you all for coming. This discussion of pulitzers gold behind the prize for Public Service journalism will from st. Louis. It is something we have to adjust to. I am roy harris, the author of the book, and i am honored to have two top new england journalists, a list of his marriage to my far right, and Sacha Pfeiffer to my immediate right. Part of our goal is to look at the powerful contributions of this centurylong body of work. It was 90 years when i started work on it. We are almost up to a century. The Pulitzer Prize started in 1917. We look at the powerful contributions of this work, this body of work, that is represented in the book, but also examine the degree to which that type of reporting is threatened. Reporting of Public Service nature on which democracy depends, and that is where the future of journalism element comes in tonight. I wish i could tell you that the past is prologue studying all of these wonderful stories, but i fear this is one of the cases that prologue may not apply. To my far right is Elizabeth Mehren. Elizabeth her writing may be found in the Los Angeles Times today. You can take the girl out of the newsroom, but you cant take the news about of the girl. [laughter] roy she has also been a reporter at the Washington Post and San Francisco chronicle. The l. A. Times is one of only three newspapers in the country that has won the Public Service Pulitzer Prize, the subject of my book on five occasions over this 90 plus year history. Most recently, in 2005, although it was a very different l. A. Times in 2005. Elizabeth also is the author of born to soon. Of he is the coauthor overcoming infertility. Her son is a student at hampshire college. Find people in their 20s crazy for journalism. Elizabeth proving that there is a mutant gene. Roy Sacha Pfeiffer reported for the boston globe. On theyed a key role spotlight Team Investigation that won the 2003 Public Service pulitzer goldmedal for its stories on sex abuse in the catholic church. She was a night journalism fellow in 2004 at Stanford University and after returning to the globe, she created a legal affairs, while also cover nonprofits and philanthropy. An adjunctte and professor, she is a coauthor of betrayal the crisis in the catholic church. You have heard her reports on Health Science medicine and the environment. Maybe if you knew things this week,. She got her started journalism moving to the globe in 1995. As for me, i was a reporter at the wall street journal on 1997 to 19 2005. I was deputy chief of the los angeles bureau. And thed Aviation Defense industry. Will to boston in 1996 to work for the economists group, which owns gfl magazine. Later, the online version of gfl. Com. In 2002, i began researching the stories behind Public Service Pulitzer Prizes which were first awarded in 1917. I did that because i found there really was no good record of how that awardwinning work had been done. I found that a lot of reporters knew nothing about that heritage of great reporting. I wanted to write it for journalism students, but also write it for general readership, the same people who may have idea of who love the finding out how newspapers and journalists work when they are at their very peak. What i had found is very little has been written about these prizes. It is interesting because you would expect a Pulitzer Prize would be well known, but the stories of how these articles were written is not well known. The president s men is the all the president s men proves that rule. To do a chapter on it because it was a Public Service winner and got to spend time with bob woodward and ben bradley. Basically, it was a lesserknown stories during this 90 plus years where i found the real treasure. , through theses years, dating back to world war i, the first prize went to the New York Times away covered world war i. How newspaper journalism had increasingly been playing a role in exposing local , regional, and national problems. Newspapersrly years, were still growing out of the yellow journalism period. They would do this in the early against great odds. In the very early years, in 1920, pulitzer winning stories exposed Charles Ponzi right here in boston. By the, he was exposed boston post. But other stories help midwestern farmers do with the dustbowl. It reflected southern leadership working for Peaceful School integration in the 1950s in little rock. This is onen example out of left field, a vicious california cult in the late 1970s. From the stores from the 1930s on, i was able to find journalist who had been involved with these projects and i was fortunate to find even journalists from as far back as 1936. All of those journalists from since died, but it was truly wonderful to get their stories and they felt like their stories behind the stories had never been told before. By coincidence, while i was working on this project starting about 2002, there were two extraordinary cases of journalism that were occurring in our backyard in boston. Of 2000 sevenr was my old paper, the wall street journal, which won its first Pulitzer Prize in 2007 for its discovery of how companies were improperly backdating , whichve Stock Options was costing stockholders a lot of money. The other, of course, was the 2002 work of the globes spotlight team to exposed the years long church coverup of how young parishioners were sexually abused by priests. That story became a centerpiece of pulitzers gold. I was surprised no one had told that story behind the story. It gave me a great chance to meet the spotlight team, including sacha. Was rudely interrupted by yet another story that was to win the service Public Service Pulitzer Prize, that was 911. Chugging away on that story when september 11 happened. That was a very local story, as well as a national story, international story. It was New York Times had won the next year of their coverage creation of ar nations challenge, that section they invented to help handle that issue. Within it, the portraits of grief in the study of terrorism victims. Very briefly, and researching the globes stories, that is where i met sacha, and i discovered her amazing contributions for the reporting. Each team of reporters has an amazing blend. I dealt with a lot of teams, many of these Public Service Pulitzer Prizes were reported by teams. One of sachas functions was to reallyew the victims and made those interviews, live. Head re victims victims who had never talked years and years before. Tonight, i think our discussion will indeed turn to the question of the first future of journalism. It will be a natural function of looking at some of these Great Stories and a great tradition of the globe in the Los Angeles Times and other papers liked them. Papers like them. That was a subject i did not consider at all and i began researching pulitzers gold appeared in 2002, it had not occurred to me that newspapers are going to be entering this slippery, slippery slide. I have had to reinvent the book as i got closer to writing it. I had to reread certain sections of it to get a sense of what was happening in journalism. Things over to turn to elizabeth for some thoughts on the pulitzer winning legacy. And what is becoming a Public Service in the 21st century . It is not a totally negative prospect, is elizabeth . Royelizabeth not at all. I want to enter i want to interject quickly. I was lucky to write about pulitzers gold. I think we should do some full disclosure here and state that way has a personal connection to this whole story as well. This book is an extra ordinary labor of research. Mine for ad journalism junkie. Roy i liked it. [laughter] elizabeth it was really fun to read stories, the early stories about how these things were done. Roy, can you pleas mention your father . Sr. ,my father, roy harris, was involved with teams that won several Pulitzer Prizes. One of those stories was one he had broken himself. Elizabeth and it was really important. The book is both a labor of wonderful Journalism Research and history, which we dont have enough. Most of us practicing journalism do it at a breakneck pace and we really are on a 24 7 schedule. Susquehanna valley and i both got phone calls at 2 00 and 3 00 in the morning after senator kennedy died. That is the way it is. We dont stop and think about the history of how we do it, we just do it. Roy dealt with it with a labor of research and a labor of love. That was nice, too. He comes back to the passion that lies behind this comes back to the passion that lies behind the motive of why we become journalists. I probably thought i was going to grow up to be, i dont know, jane austen, but that didnt work. Instead i became lois lane. As lois lane, i had always had a newsrooms of all persuasions. Especially internet newsrooms now. It was for food for them and one for me. Them and oner for for me. Was the one i cared for passionately. Underdog, about the shining lights on injustice. They keep thist going. That is the fuel for all of us. We are always looking for the other side. That is why it is not going to go away. To quickly answer the future of journalism question, there is a future. Atbe not a Healthy Future this moment. Journalism is alive, not just just not as well as we like it to be. These are changing. Things are changing. We are kind of liked those darwinian creatures emerging out of the sea. We dont know if youre going to beks s, it would be nice if we could have a crystal ball prediction. Believe Community Journalism is not going to go away. Journalism will be a long time before we see the end of it. It is too vital to the community. Communitybased websites do not work the same way as dailies. People want to read about themselves. A very good example, here in banner,s the baystate which is the africanamerican, application. Hop that is how it is important to is. That is unprecedented in a region. We were taught in journalism to not use the word unprecedented , because as soon as you use it, someone will come from behind and find something. I am going to put my professor ;i liz hat on. We are described as working stiffs. I never buy white because i have ink stain on everything. Student interest remains very high. I think this is a very positive side. No less of authority than robert at the cockeyed school of journalism in arizona described a journalism degree as sort of the new liberal arts degree. Why is that . It is because the foundation of all journalism is curiosity. That is really what keeps us going. Somewhat older children, keep saying, why . The ones who want to slap the ones that you want to slap. We teach very, very deep research skills. We teach prioritization of events trying to figure out what is the most important event. We teach clear, succinct writing, so much so that i often tell my students, especially i love to write students, that this is uncreative writing. We teach a way to funnel, to to defend it. And after all we have to market is our own integrity and truth. I would say those are pretty important qualities. Turning to Investigative Journalism and to the Public Service journalism, which standard. E gold i also have been lucky enough to be a part of the part of a with the rodney king riots in los angeles. We have all worked on them. When you are doing the work, you arent thinking i may get a pulitzer. You are thinking this is a really hot story, it is really important. It is very timeconsuming this kind of reporting. Is one reason it is very expensive because it is time consuming. Most reporters, the notion of the spotlightdedicated team is becoming more rare in newsrooms. Instead, what we are seeing is , which isbridization exciting. In journalism, i used to work a photographer, joe rosenthal, who took the famous photograph of the flag over you would jima and famoustook the photograph and won a pulitzer for it. Justin presses, news news just in they launched the watchdog institute. Forming anreporters Investigative Journalism , and theion, nonprofit san diego union. They will be providing stories for various outlets within the community we on that particular area. In no other place in the virgin islands, we see a very, very Aggressive Group of reporting google reporters working there group of reporters working there. Here it is this gorgeous paradise and the are digging up ambitious projects with titles cronies,racts and showing how the islands government created sham contracts. The public really needs to know this information. How else are they going to get it . Nowhere. More and more, i think you are seeing the hybridization were reporters and committed journalists, who may be are being marginalized from their. Wn newsrooms and are setting up their own outfit. There is a big group out of new york, which has the best reporters in america. A wonderful thing. We are now seeing a lot of partnering with universities. Where sacha and i teach. Have the New England Center for Investigative Journalism, which is representing a partnership a practicing ,ournalism, student journalists and the university. Winwin thing for everybody. The university of wisconsin, mama motter, uc berkeley my alma mater, uc berkeley. Universities, except i regret to say harvard. True thatt is woodward and bernstein and they are probably one of the bestknown. The kids to learn the stories. The good news is they want to become these journalists. At all the look president boschman. All the president s men. It is not about becoming those specific people. They want the hardware. Work. Y want the hard they want the glory, to coulo o. Is the formements of delivery will be changing. It is changing now. Newspapers are outright vanishing, or which is tragic. We all worry about the big hometown paper in boston. I dont take it going away. I dont think its going away. Or cutting back on staff. The Tribune Corporation of the Los Angeles Times has eliminated all national correspondents, except the staff at the l. A. Times. The l. A. Times is now deliver National News to all the tribune papers. The form of delivery will be changing. We will be seeing much more of this Investigative Teamwork stories. Websites. Be dedicated if you google Investigative Journalism websites, you will see many of them. The downside is there is no way to monitor them. Have pulitzer , weewinning journalists dont necessarily know. It is in a state of evolution. For that reason, we are going to see the Pulitzer Committee itself having to make some evolution of its own. Right now, the pulitzer is printcentric roy . It is morphing. Elizabeth sooner or later, they have to admit that there are awfully great journalism that is webcentric. I certainly know there are websites i read daily for certain pieces of information. It is all changing. I hope that all of you will have morning papers delivered well into the next century. The next life, the hereafter. Roy thank you, elizabeth. Your mention of what is going in Boston Creates a huge issue for all of us wondering about that amazing reporting that went on in 2002, and whether that kind of reporting could still continue. I hope that you will at least attack that one. Elizabeth mention this, business, you go at breakneck speed. The hard part is you cant control your schedule, so you lose control over your personalized. Over your personal life. I had a friend who could not make any weekday plans because she had to counsel them so often. , crazy news just doesnt happen between now 00 and 5 00. When i had been covering courts for the globe, when i was asked to join the spotlight team, somebody said enjoy your early tire meant. Reputation has been they do one or two stories a year. That was the expectation. In my case, it was the opposite. We did do one project we spent a few months on. The typical pattern was a threeday series and you write about the change. When we began to write the prestory and publish it, it became a daily beat for the globe and then a national story. We felt we cannot let ourselves be beat on a story we started. In my case, it was not an early retirement. It was exhausting. It was a real privilege to do that kind of work. The spotlight works on the part of the globe that is hard to get to. That was done by design so that what we were working on could be done in private. Whatfew people would know was h