Over a century’s time, Mississippi news organizations have won only seven Pulitzer Prizes, which are regarded as one of the highest honors in journalism.
Past recipients include two winners for coverage of weather disasters, most recently Hurricane Katrina; and three were for race relations and integration. The other winner was the Clarion Ledger in 1983 for its support of Gov. William Winter’s education reforms.
This week, though, a Mississippi outlet won a Pulitzer Prize for good old-fashioned dogged reporting that exposed financial wrongdoing.
Anna Wolfe of the Mississippi Today website received the Pulitzer for local reporting for her series of stories last year that used public-record requests and impressive persistence to fully detail the scope of the state’s welfare scandal — at $77 million, the largest misuse of public money in Mississippi history.
Newspapers in the state may grumble that this is the sort of story they used to get first. And conservatives may grumble that Mississippi Today, which leans comfortably to the left, is being honored because of its politics.
There is some truth in this. Newspapers did used to have a monopoly on rooting out government corruption, but the changing media world has greatly reduced the number of reporters who dig for this kind of stuff. Wolfe’s stories showed what this has cost.
As for Mississippi Today, it definitely could use a couple of conservative columnists to balance its more liberal writers. But quite possibly, Republicans also are grumpy because the thievery Wolfe discovered happened on their watch over a number of years. It’s embarrassing.
At the core, the welfare scandal is a fine example of how greed and other deadly sins can tempt anyone, no matter what their politics.
Perhaps the most interesting element of the award is that Wolfe is young — 28 — and came to Mississippi, where she has worked for her entire professional career, from Washington state. She did not have much of a Mississippi or Southern background to lean on, but still found sources who pointed her toward a bombshell of a story that is not finished being told.
As for Mississippi Today, congratulations are in order. The non-profit organization is only seven years old and has won a Pulitzer Prize. Not many media outlets can say that.
As in-depth reporting by for-profit newspapers has been reduced, Mississippi Today has stepped up to fill the void. The welfare scandal is among many topics the website’s reporters have explored in great detail — a mission that used to belong largely to the Clarion Ledger.
There is a message in this Pulitzer Prize: Good reporting that is based on facts still has an impact. And newspapers, along with their own websites, have a role to play in this effort.
You don’t need a Pulitzer Prize to do a good job of telling your readers what’s going on.
Jack Ryan, Enterprise-Journal
