The Advocate has won its first Pulitzer Prize. It’s not the first time a New Orleans newspaper has won a Pulitzer: the Times-Picayune won for its Hurricane Katrina/Federal Flood coverage. That was, of course, before that paper was hollowed out by its masters and transformed into the Zombie-Picayune.
Many former Picayune people are now with the Advocate. One of whom is my friend Gordon Russell who is the managing editor for investigations, and one of the winners of the Pulitzer Prize for local reporting. They won for a series about Louisiana’s non-unanimous jury system. It was reporting that made a difference as the voters abolished that Jim Crow relic last fall.
The tweet in question shows the paper’s New Orleans newsroom exploding with joy upon learning the news:
The moment The Advocate's New Orleans newsroom found out they were Pulitzer Prize winners. Incredible moment. pic.twitter.com/fY9IVb92Yj
— New Orleans Advocate (@theadvocateno) April 15, 2019
Congratulations to everyone at the Advocate for proving that local newspapers still matter. Well done, y’all.
Repeat after me: Not Everything Sucks.
Well, now, how could the Advocate possibly win a Pulitzer? Have they maximized their platform and optimized their frannistanic arglebargle? I’ll bet they haven’t even taken on a fancy corporate-speak name like Trinc or Blonc! Oh, they won for just reporting on something that happened. Big deal.