Pulitzers show newspapers are indispensable

The Pulitzer Prizes, which were announced Tuesday, shine a spotlight on the importance of professional journalism. The awards went mostly to reporters who uncovered scandals, investigated corruption and informed the public about important matters. Consider these examples from the list of winners:

• The New York Times for reporting on then-Gov. Eliot Spitzer's call-girl scandal;

• The Detroit Free Press for uncovering a secret (and very costly for taxpayers) between the then-mayor and the city manager;

• The Las Vegas Sun for investigating the high death rate among construction workers on the Las Vegas strip;

• The St. Petersburg Times for meticulously fact-checking the claims of the candidates in the presidential elections;

• Mesa, Arizona's East Valley Tribune for a report showing how a local sheriff's focus on immigration enforcement endangered other investigations;

• The New York Times for explaining the challenges the United States faces in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

These high-profile prizes come at a low point for American journalism. Newspapers are laying off reporters and editors by the thousands. Some major newspapers have filed for bankruptcy. North Carolina's two largest newspapers, the Charlotte Observer and Raleigh News & Observer, are being bled dry by parent company McClatchy's demands for additional revenue to pay off its debt. One telling remark in the Washington Post's announcement is that one of the award-winning East Valley Tribune reporters has already been laid off.

The St. Petersburg Times' Lane DeGregory won a Pulitzer for one of the most heart-aching news stories I've ever read about the adoption of a young girl who had been held captive and unloved for so long that she had become "feral." I had been sent a copy of the story last year and couldn't stop reading it. Warning: Be prepared to cry if you read this. It, too, is part of what makes newspapers great.

Meanwhile, some virulent newspaper haters (such as these) are cheering the bankruptcies and layoffs. In Internet postings, they express hope that newspapers everywhere will be forced to shut down, a development they claim will allow access to "unfiltered" and unbiased news coverage. But this year's Pulitzers show that good reporting can't be done by part-timers in their pajamas at the kitchen table. Good reporting requires huge investments of time and money. Sending reporters to Afghanistan or Iraq isn't cheap. Standing up to a powerful mayor and challenging his claims of confidentiality require a huge investment in legal fees. Gaining the confidence of key sources in an important investigation requires a career-long investment of time. Examining the records that back up a long investigation requires the full-time labor of professional reporters. Without newspapers, these important stories won't be reported, scandals will go unchecked and America's governance will sink into dishonesty, graft and depravity.