SNPA members celebrate Pulitzer Prize honors

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Congratulations to two SNPA member newspapers that celebrated Pulitzer Prize honors yesterday – Alabama Media Group (Birmingham) and the Charlottesville (Va.) Daily Progress. Additional SNPA members were among the finalists.

A former Daily Progress photographer's picture of a car slamming into a crowd of counter-protesters after the Aug. 12 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville has won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography.

The photo (above), taken by Ryan Kelly on his last day at the paper, showed the car hitting the crowd and tossing people into the air.

Judges gave Kelly the award "for a chilling image that reflected the photographer's reflexes and concentration in capturing the moment of impact of a car attack during a racially charged protest in Charlottesville."  Read more

John Archibald of Alabama Media Group, Birmingham, Ala., was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary. He was honored for his writing about Alabama politics in a year marked by trouble atop all three branches of state government and a dramatic U.S. Senate race that ended in an upset victory by Democrat Doug Jones over conservative judge Roy Moore.

On Dec. 12, the day of the special Senate election, Archibald appealed to voters in his own direct style: "Thinking of the world watching Alabama right now is like hearing an unexpected knock on the door when you haven't done the dishes. ... The world is watching. And what it sees will have consequences. Vote your heart. Vote your conscience. But know what it means. To the world, and to you."  Read more

Congratulations also are extended to additional SNPA members who were finalists:

  • Tim Eberly of The Virginian-Pilot, Norfolk, Va., for Investigative Reporting – for his series on Virginia's "three strikes" law, which denied the chance for parole to some felons. Read more
  • Staff of The Associated Press for International Reporting – for a devastating series that vividly showed that the human cost of the U.S.-led defeat of the Islamic State in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul was far greater than acknowledged. Read more
  • Sharon Grisby of The Dallas Morning News for Editorial Writing – for her work on sexual assault at Baylor University.  Read more
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