Still Plenty of Room In The Trophy Case

Spring is a special time of year. The trees are budding, the grass is greening, the flowers are blooming, and The Pulitzer Prizes are being passed out. With this year's selections, it appears as if the Pulitzer Board is going the way of the Nobel Foundation and basing awards as much on politics as individual merit. Would anyone be really surprised to see Jimmy Carter walk away with a Pulitzer one of these years?

Not nearly as shocked as we would be if the Star Tribune did. Yet again, the Strib comes up empty-handed when the hardware is being distributed. And yet again, Jim, whose Strib Pulitzer updates have become annual events (2004 taunt, 2005 taunt), is here with salt shaker in hand. Let the pouring begin:

It's once again the time of year when Minneapolis StarTribune reporters and editors wait anxiously by their phones hoping against hope that they will receive that coveted call from the Pulitzer Prize committee. Given that their far-left agenda would seem to be in synch with those awarding the prizes, one would expect that at least the occasionally that phone would ring. Alas, for the sixteenth consecutive year, even the StarTribune's ideological twins have found them wanting.

Here is the list of newspapers with less circulation than the StarTribune which have nevertheless won more than the Star Tribune's one Pulitzer:

Miami Herald (17)
Baltimore Sun (13)
Seattle Times (7)
Louisville Courier Journal (7)
Portland Oregonian (6)
St. Petersburg Times (6)
Christian Science Monitor (6)
Kansas City Star (6)
San Francisco Chronicle (5)
Des Moines Register (5)
New Orleans Times-Picayune (4)
Sacramento Bee (4)
Lexington (Ky.) Herald Leader (3)
Atlanta Journal and Constitution (3)
Akron (Ohio) Beacon Journal (3)
St. Paul Pioneer Press (3)
Village Voice (3)
Newark Star-Ledger (2)
Hartford Courant (2)
Seattle Post-Intelligencer (2)
Arizona Republic (2)
Cleveland Plain Dealer (2)
Albuquerque Journal (2)
Dayton (Ohio) Daily News (2)
Indianapolis Star (2)
Lawrence (Mass.) Eagle-Tribune (2)
Memphis Commercial Appeal (2)
Raleigh News and Observer (2)
Orange County Register (2)
Philadelphia Daily News (2)
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (2)
Providence Journal-Bulletin (2)

This year the StarTribune added two more Pulitzer Peers: the Biloxi Sun-Herald and the San Diego Union-Tribune. The Biloxi Sun-Herald won for their coverage of Hurricane Katrina, as did the New Orleans Times-Picayune. This hardly seems fair to the Strib given that hurricanes rarely strike Minnesota. Perhaps next year a prize will be added for newspaper pilfering.

Here is the updated list of the StarTribune's Pulitzer Peers (although all of the papers listed have won their Pulitzer more recently than the StarTribune's lone 1990 prize):

Ames (Iowa) Daily Tribune
Asbury Park Press (Neptune, NJ)
*Biloxi Sun-Herald
Birmingham, (Ala.) News
Boston Phoenix
Cincinnati Enquirer
Grand Forks (N.D.) Herald
Great Falls (Mont.) Tribune
Riverdale (N.Y.) Press
Rutland (Vt.) Herald
*San Diego Union-Tribune
Santa Rosa (Calif.) Press Democrat
Toledo Blade
Virgin Islands Daily News (St. Thomas)
White Plains (N.Y.) Journal News
Willamette (Or.) Week

* New StarTribune Pulitzer Peers

To add insult to injury, the StarTribune didn't even have a single finalist this year. Here is a partial list of newspapers that did not win a Pulitzer this year, but had a finalist in at least one category:

Toledo Blade
South Florida Sun-Sentinel (finalists in three categories)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Jackson (Miss.) Clarion-Ledger (finalists in two categories)
Birmingham (Ala.) News