Pulitzer winner plagiarizes at Washington Post (*updated)

 The Washington Post has apologized in an editor's note for a case of "substantial" plagiarism in two of its stories. In both, passages were lifted from the Arizona Republic. The author of the reports, Sari Horwitz, a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, received a three-month suspension, Washington Post media writer Paul Farhi has reported.

Four in the morning

1. Twenty-eight-year old Pulitzer winner uses his prize money to establish a fund for rural reporters. IRJ

2. Las Vegas Review-Journal defends its practice of suing over alleged copyright violations. LV Sun

3. Thank god someone is finally giving corporations a chance to be heard. Forbes will run corporate/marketing/advertising blogs alongside staff blogs to make sure these afflicted get the comfort they so sorely need. AdAge

4. I guess since so many journalists have already left, Sidney Harman won't have to fire that many people at Newsweek. Poynter

In your face

The managing editor of the Bristol Herald Courier used his column and his Pulitzer Prize win to settle old and new scores with the Washington Post. (via Romenesko)

Journalists making a difference

Winning a Pulitzer Prize just wasn't enough for photograph Kim Komenich.

From the Chronicle:

On Monday, as Komenich was at a Wells Fargo Bank in downtown San Jose, he saw a teller being robbed and the suspect reaching for his pockets. Komenich walked up behind the suspect and held him in a bear hug until police arrived.

"Between classes, I go out there and do what I can do to make the world a little better for people," Komenich, 53, of Mill Valley quipped.

He can photograph a tall buildings in a single bound.

(photo from San Jose Police Department via SF Chronicle)

Closing time

Freedom Communications has decided to close the East Valley Tribune in Mesa, Arizona after failing to find a buyer. The newspaper employs about 140 people and had already trimmed staff and a reduced its printing schedule to try to trim costs.

The Tribune won a Pulitzer Prize for local reporting this year.

Freedom, which is the parent company of the Orange County Register, filed for bankruptcy in August.

(found via LA Biz Observed)

Comings and goings

God Blog author and former LANGer Brad Greenberg is heading to UCLA Law School. In a Friday post, he says he plans to keep up with the blogging even as he studies the finer points of contract law and civil procedure in the Fall.

LA Observed notes that Las Vegas Sun reporter Alexandra Berzon, fresh off her Pulitzer Prize win, will head west to join the Wall Street Journal's Los Angeles bureau. Last month, Drex Heikes, Berzon's editor on the four-part series that won the award, announced that he would be leaving the Sun to take over as editor-in-chief of the LA Weekly in August.

Sun on the Sun

The Las Vegas Sun recounts the day that it won the Pulitzer Prize. The story is by Marshall Allen, formerly of the Pasadena Star-News.

Pulitzer prizes*, **

The Las Vegas Sun won the coveted Public Service award for a series on construction deaths on the Las Vegas Strip.

(Marshall Allen, my former colleague at the Pasadena Star-News and now a Sun reporter, had this to say when I congratulated him: "We're stunned." I'm also told that, as of 12:30 p.m. Pacific, the lead reporter is out of the office with her cell phone off and so doesn't even know she's won yet. 12:39 p.m.: Alexandra Berzon just arrived at the office to a round of applause.)

Bettina Boxall and Julie Cart of the Los Angeles Times won for explanatory reporting for their stories studying the effectiveness of strategies to battle Western wild fires.

The New York Times racked up the highest number of awards, with five, including one for breaking the Eliot Spitzer call-girl scandal.

The list of winners is here. A fuller explanation of what each paper won for is here.

*This post has been updated.

**Update, two: Two Pulitzer notes to consider. The first comes from Mark Lacter at LA Biz Observed. He noticed that none of the awards were for coverage of the financial collapse. I'd picked Gretchen Morgenson as a favorite.

The second, and sadder, note comes from Portfolio, which reports that two of the Pulitzer winners, both from the East Valley Tribune in Arizona, were laid off late last year.

My Pulitzer pick

Who could have foreseen the Doomsday Scenario now playing out as the federal government tries to rescue Wall Street? That elite, East Coast media, that's who.

Gretchen Morgenson of the New York Times sounded the alarm back in February with a long, detailed piece describing the massive credit default swaps market that is now threatening to swallow Wall Street in a swamp of toxic debt. On Feb. 17 she wrote:

Few Americans have heard of credit default swaps, arcane financial instruments invented by Wall Street about a decade ago. But if the economy keeps slowing, credit default swaps, like subprime mortgages, may become a household term.

Credit default swaps form a large but obscure market that will be put to its first big test as a looming economic downturn strains companies’ finances. Like a homeowner’s policy that insures against a flood or fire, these instruments are intended to cover losses to banks and bondholders when companies fail to pay their debts.

The market for these securities is enormous. Since 2000, it has ballooned from $900 billion to more than $45.5 trillion — roughly twice the size of the entire United States stock market.

No one knows how troubled the credit swaps market is, because, like the now-distressed market for subprime mortgage securities, it is unregulated. But because swaps have proliferated so rapidly, experts say that a hiccup in this market could set off a chain reaction of losses at financial institutions, making it even harder for borrowers to get loans that grease economic activity.

Morgenson went on to report that American International Group (AIG) failed to properly value it's swaps, leading to a $3.6 billion loss. Look how that turned out.

Morgenson won a Pulitzer Prize in 2002 for her coverage of Wall Street. She deserves another.

In what I still think is my best "To The Point," Morgenson came on our show to talk about the effect of the housing crisis on the economy. John Cassidy of the New Yorker was also a guest. He talked about the volatility of the free market and the inevitability of these terrible bubbles when government takes a hands-off approach.

Great Seattle property, will sell cheap

McClatchy Co. has lowered the value of it's 49.5% stake in the Seattle Times t0 $9.9 million, down from $102 million just two years ago. The carrying value is set for accounting purposes and does not necessarily reflect the price McClatchy would ask were it to sell. Indeed, there is nothing in the reports I've read to suggest McClatchy plans to put its stake on the market.

Still, let's try to put that valuation in perspective. Cher is selling her Malibu mansion for $45 million. While the 14,000-square-foot house does have an ocean view and a tennis court, it has never won a Pulitzer Prize and has very little to offer in the way of breaking news or investigative reporting.

Pulitzer roundup

The Washington Post won six awards. The New York Times won two. The Chicago Tribune, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Boston Globe, Investors Business Daily, Reuters and Concord Monitor each won one.

Dean Singleton, however, comes up empty.

For the complete list of winners and finalists, go here.

Is this Dean's year?

Pulitzer Prizes will be handed out Monday. The New York Times looks dominant and the Washington Post's series on Walter Reed Army Medical Center has to be the favorite to win the coveted public service prize.

MediaNews flagship The Denver Post is a finalist in the investigative category, although there's some controversy surrounding the submission.

If the paper wins, will Dean Singleton rethink the gut-and-consolidate strategy he has implemented at his other papers? After all, even he will have to see that his long-time dream will have come true only through a real investment in journalism, and the Post is the only paper he's ever really invested in.

Daily shorts

Republicans hurt by deregulation

Alabama is full of coincidences

News is only a small piece of the new news business

Another year I won't be getting a Pulitzer

A politician might have told the truth