Pulitzers focus on virus, police coverage

A woman raises her fist next to a burning police vehicle in Los Angeles during protests in May 2020 over the death of George Floyd. The image was part of a series of photographs by The Associated Press that won the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for breaking news photography.
(AP/Ringo H.W. Chiu)
A woman raises her fist next to a burning police vehicle in Los Angeles during protests in May 2020 over the death of George Floyd. The image was part of a series of photographs by The Associated Press that won the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for breaking news photography. (AP/Ringo H.W. Chiu)

Pulitzer Prizes were awarded Friday to news organizations that provided in-depth coverage of the dramatic turns of 2020, a year dominated by a pandemic that left millions dead and a national conversation on race after the murder of George Floyd.

The prize for public service, considered the most prestigious of the Pulitzers, went to The New York Times for its coverage of the coronavirus pandemic, an award shared by many departments at the newspaper. The board called the Times' coverage "courageous, prescient and sweeping."

The Pulitzer board also recognized journalism that examined law enforcement practices during a year of worldwide street protests inspired, in part, by the murder of Floyd, a Black man, by a police officer in Minneapolis.

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The national reporting award recognized an investigative series on police dogs used as weapons, often against innocent citizens, that was carried out by four news organizations working together: The Marshall Project, a nonprofit outlet focused on criminal justice; AL.com, an Alabama news site; IndyStar, of Indianapolis; and the Invisible Institute, a journalism company based on the southside of Chicago.

The Tampa Bay Times won the local reporting award for exposing a data-driven policing initiative in Pasco County, Fla., that intimidated residents and labeled some schoolchildren as future criminals. The staff of The Star Tribune in Minneapolis won in the breaking news category for its coverage of the murder of Floyd and its aftermath.

The Pulitzer Prizes, first given in 1917 and presented annually by Columbia University for excellence in journalism, books, music and drama, were announced via video livestream by Pulitzer board co-chairs Mindy Marques Gonzalez and Stephen Engelberg. Originally scheduled for April, the event was postponed as the pandemic lasted into 2021, giving board members more time to judge the entries.

Darnella Frazier, the teenager who filmed the murder of Floyd, received a special citation. In her remarks Friday, Gonzalez called Frazier's video "transformative," adding that it "jolted viewers and spurred protests against police brutality around the world."

In addition to its public service Pulitzer on Friday, the Times won for criticism, an honor that went to Wesley Morris, a critic-at-large. His 2020 work included a meditation on the important role played by Black Americans with camera phones in the civil rights movement.

BuzzFeed News won its first Pulitzer, in the international reporting category, for its investigative series on the scale of China's internment of Uyghurs, a mostly Muslim minority. The articles in the series "shine desperately needed light on one of the worst human rights abuses of our time," Mark Schoofs, BuzzFeed News' editor-in-chief, said in a statement.

Another first-time winner was The Atlantic, which was awarded the Pulitzer in the explanatory reporting category for coverage of the pandemic by Ed Yong. A second explanatory reporting prize was given to five Reuters journalists for an examination of a Supreme Court protection that shields police officers who use excessive force.

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