NYT, New Yorker win Pulitzers for sexual harassment stories

The New York Times and The New Yorker won Pulitzer Prizes for public service journalism on Monday for their reporting on the Harvey Weinstein scandal.

The reporting effectively ended Weinstein’s career, and led to a cascading series of stories of past sexual harassment involving big names in Hollywood and the media. It also touched off the viral explosion of the “Me Too” movement denouncing sexual harassment and misconduct.

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Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey were recognized for their reporting at the Times, while Ronan Farrow won for The New Yorker.

The committee said the work was an example of “impactful journalism” that had brought powerful and wealthy sexual predators “to account for long-suppressed allegations of coercion, brutality and victim silencing, thus spurring a worldwide reckoning about sexual abuse of women.”

The staffs for The Washington Post and The New York Times won the national reporting award for their work on the investigations into Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential race and contacts between President Trump’s campaign associates and Russian officials.

The Post’s staff also won the investigative award for its work on the Alabama Senate race.

The Post uncovered allegations that Republican Roy Moore, the favorite in the race, had a sexual relationship with a teenager in the late 1970s. Other stories on allegations of past sexual harassment against Moore also were uncovered by the Post.

Moore ended up losing the general election race to Democrat Doug Jones in a massive upset in the deep-red state.

Clare Baldwin, Andrew R.C. Marshall and Manuel Mogato of Reuters won the award for international reporting for their stories exposing “the brutal killing campaign behind Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs.”

The Pulitzer is considered the most coveted and prestigious awards in journalism. It was first awarded in 1917.  

This is the second year the Pulitzers have been awarded since the election of President Trump, who regularly lambastes the media for “fake news” and offered his own “fake news awards” in January.