Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting

All of the Pulitzer Prize winning stories looked very compelling and I wanted to thoroughly analyze each and every one of them but I decided to focus my attention on the Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting that was awarded to Frank Main, Mark Konkol and John J. Kim of the Chicago Sun-Times for their immersive documentation of violence in Chicago neighborhoods, probing the lives of victims, criminals and detectives as a widespread code of silence impedes solutions.

The titles for their stories were compelling, “This is the story of why they won’t stop shooting in Chicago.”  The lead is creative, not just interesting, but I’ve never seen it done before, connecting to the title: “It’s told by the wounded, the accused and the officers who were on the street during a weekend in April 2008 when 40 people were shot, seven fatally.”And then the nut graph is a hook too, saying that nearly every shooter escaped charges.  It’s the perfect set up to explain how they got off and so much more about Chicago.  The entire series looks at a trend of connected crimes and each one tells something more, from a different angle about what is going on. 

This news is easy to read, it uncovers what the police really are doing behind the scenes: “Odds are, most of those cases will remain unsolved. The Chicago Police Department’s batting average for catching shooters has fallen to an alarmingly low level.”

“But here’s the catch: When police “clear” a case, that doesn’t always mean a suspect got convicted — or even charged.”

This coverage benefits the city of Chicago because it is a wakeup call, bringing attention to the fact that there needs to be more justice served.

            I think this story catches the eyes of the judges because everyone who was included in it must have had to trust the journalists, some of the information especially about where the police are lacking, is not information you obtain by just walking up to someone.  The reporters also were speaking to dangerous people, people you don’t want on your bad side.  It’s the kind of reporting that requires the reporter to really know the city, to know its problems, know what it needs.  All of, or part of this team of reporters had to be really gifted or work really hard, or both.

            The series does an outstanding job giving voices to the people involved in these cyclical crimes, Gamble for instance.  Oftentimes shooters walk free because the judge can’t trust the word of either person, obviously this is a problem.

            This story is taking the messiest part of the city and printing it public, so everyone can see it, so that it can no longer be swept under the rug, my inclination is to assume that the city of Chicago got their act together after this series was published, it created change, it have a voice to people who never had one before, that’s why it was worth the time and money, that’s why it won a Pulitzer Prize. 

            This is great –

“Jose Bravo, Willie Brown and Dontae Gamble — all men who survived bullets during this one violent weekend in Chicago — are faces of a real problem.”

“When victims won’t cooperate or have shaky credibility on the witness stand, the overwhelming odds are the people who shot them won’t go to prison.”

            The reporter really understands the problem.  “The shooters know it” too, making the problem worse, because they know they’re going to get away with it.  This is cosmic, it’s a trend, it’s important, it’s a problem in Chicago, but I’m sure it’s a problem in many cities.  The reporter must have been into probing every subject about this. 

“I know,” Tate told him. “But I ain’t telling you s---.”

“Unfortunately it’s almost a culture among the drug dealers and gang members, that code of silence, that ‘don’t snitch’ mentality that they not only have when they’re witnesses, but also when they’re the victims,” Riccio said.” – Each of these stories tells a smaller part of the bigger picture; no one is credible, no one will speak = no one will serve justice and the problem will perpetuate.  The structure of the different voices in the series is one of the many aspects of the report makes this series excellent. 

The story about the 4-year-old boy is especially compelling – his shooter remains free.