ProPublica reporters Jesse Eisinger and Jake Bernstein have been awarded a Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting for their series of stories about bankers whose actions worsened the financial crisis. The series began with an in-depth story about the hedge fund Magnetar, which ProPublica covered in cooperation with Alex Blumberg and Adam Davidson of Planet Money, resulting in a story in our episode "Inside Job." This is the second Pulitzer for ProPublica, and the first for stories only published online.
From the ProPublica
press release about the award:
Jesse and Jake's work was greatly augmented by partnerships with public radio's "Planet Money" and "This American Life." While radio reporting is not eligible for the Pulitzer, we want to acknowledge a great debt to, and celebrate our partnership with, Adam Davidson, Alex Blumberg and Ira Glass and their teams. I also urge you, if you haven't seen them before, to check out the two songs -- a
Broadway-style parody from the team that has recently collaborated on "The Book of Mormon," and a work from the young geniuses who
Auto-Tune the News -- that accompanied this series. There's also a
comic strip.
But while we poked fun at the ironies in this story, and by so doing tried to make it more accessible, its central point is quite serious, and critically important: that the mores of Wall Street, at least in the period 2006-2008, were not consistent with the public interest or the national interest, and that greater oversight (and perhaps enforcement actions) may be in order. (
read more)
Congratulations to Jesse, Jake and the entire ProPublica team.
