Reuters Posted online: Tuesday, April 05, 2005 at 1724 hours IST
New York, April 5: The Los Angeles Times has won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for a series of articles exposing deadly medical problems and racial injustice at a major public hospital.
The Southern California newspaper also won a Pulitzer -- US journalism's top award -- in international reporting for correspondent Kim Murphy's coverage of Russia's struggles with terrorism, its economy and its political system.
It shared the international reporting prize with Long Island, New York-based Newsday, whose reporter, Dele Olojede, was honoured for his coverage of Rwanda a decade after its genocidal slaughter.
The annual Pulitzer Prize winners in Journalism and Letters, Drama and Music were announced at New York's Columbia University. The awards come as newsrooms are trying to rebuild public faith in journalistic institutions after a series of scandals at such leading media outlets as the New York Times and CBS.
"At a time when the news media are often criticized, the newspaper winners and the finalists are heartening examples of high quality journalism in all parts of the United States," said Pulitzer Prize administrator Sig Gissler.
Gissler said there were 1,326 newspaper entries this year, down from 1,423 last year and that three themes had emerged: the war in Iraq, health and science, and natural disasters.
It was a second year of victory for the Los Angeles Times, which last year took the most awards, winning five.
This year, The Wall Street Journal also won two Pulitzer Prizes -- one by reporter Amy Dockser Marcus for beat reporting for her stories about cancer survivors and the Pulitzer Prize for criticism for its film reviews by Joe Morgenstern.
The New York Times' Walt Bogdanich won in the category of national reporting for stories about the corporate cover-up of responsibility for fatal railway crossing accidents.
Newark, New Jersey's Star-Ledger won for its 'clear-headed' breaking news coverage of the resignation of New Jersey's governor after he announced he had a gay extra-marital affair.
Nigel Jaquiss of the Willamette Week of Portland, Oregon won for investigative reporting about a former governor's long-concealed sexual misconduct with a 14-year-old girl.
Gareth Cook of The Boston Globe won for explanatory reporting for his articles on stem cell research, while Julia Keller of the Chicago Tribune won in the category of feature writing for her account of a deadly 10-second tornado.
The Associated Press staff won for breaking news photography for its pictures of combat in Iraqi cities, and Deanne Fitzmaurice of the San Francisco Chronicle won for feature photography for her essay on a local hospital's efforts to treat a badly injured Iraqi boy.
Gissler noted the danger and limited mobility reporters face in Iraq. "The war in Iraq seems less present this year probably because of the barriers to coverage," he said.
The award for commentary went to Connie Schultz of The Plain Dealer in Cleveland for her columns on "the underdog and underprivileged," while the prize for editorial writing went to Tom Philp of The Sacramento Bee.
The prize for editorial cartooning went to Nick Anderson of The Courier-Journal in Louisville, Kentucky.
For fiction, the Pulitzer went to Gilead by Marilynne Robinson, published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux.
The prize for drama went to Doubt, a parable by John Patrick Shanley, and the prize for history went to Washington's Crossing by David Hackett Fischer, published by Oxford University Press.
The Pulitzer Prize for biography was awarded to De Kooning: An American Master, written by Mark Stevens and Annalyn Swan and published by Alfred A. Knopf. Stevens and Swan are a husband-and-wife team, the Pulitzer administrator said.
The Pulitzer Prize for poetry was given to Delights & Shadows by Ted Kooser, published by Copper Canyon Press, while the award for general nonfiction went to Ghost Wars by Steve Coll, published by The Penguin Press.
Coll also won a Pulitzer in 1990, when he shared in the explanatory journalism award while at The Washington Post.
The prize for music was given to the Second Concerto for Orchestra by Steven Stucky.
