Panel That Awarded Pulitzers for Russiagate Stories Mum After Scathing Exposé on Reporting Failures
The “Russiagate” narrative, which permeated mainstream news coverage during the Trump years, was dismantled in an exhaustive four-part series in the Columbia Journalism Review by investigative reporter Jeff Gerth.
The panel that awarded Pulitzer Prizes to the New York Times and Washington Post for reporting related to the discredited Trump-Russia collusion narrative has gone mum as it faces new scrutiny following publication of a four-part series in the Columbia Journalism Review (CJR) documenting the establishment media pillars’ lapses from their claimed journalistic standards.
The 19-member Pulitzer Prize board for 2017-2018 was comprised of various journalists, professors and writers, including several current or former staff members of the New York Times or Washington Post.
Just The News reached out to 13 members of the panel to find out if the CJR exposé had prompted second thoughts about the Russiagate prizes. Neil Brown, president of the Poynter Institute had an auto reply set, saying he was out of the office, while Steve Coll, former dean of Columbia Journalism School, had an auto-reply saying he is on sabbatical. None of the other board members replied.
In response to a request for comment on the CJR series, Pulitzer Prize Administrator Majorie Miller wrote, “Due to pending litigation regarding these matters, I am not able to comment on the story.”
After the Pulitzer board initially stood by its Russigate awards, former President Donald Trump — the central target of the narrative, which grew out of opposition research commissioned by his 2016 opponent Hillary Clinton — filed a defamation lawsuit against them in December, following a request to reconsider the prizes…..
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