Author tells the story behind journalism's big Pulitzer winners

2/29/2008For Roy J. Harris Jr., the Pulitzer Prize, one of journalism's top honors, entered his life when he was just four years old.

In 1950 his father, Roy J. Harris Sr., a reporter for the St. Louis Dispatch, and E. George Theim from the Chicago Daily News, won the coveted award when they exposed the presence of 30-plus newspapermen on the Illinois payroll of then-Gov. Dwight Green.

"I came from a family where Pulitzer Prize was a tradition [that] was very strong. In 1950 I remember that case very well because I was four.there was a big Pulitzer Prize party at the house, but I had to go to bed early," Harris said.

Harris has taken that story among many and chronicled them in his new book, "Pulitzer's Gold: Behind the Prize for Public Service Journalism," which serves as a historical archive of the gold medals won by hard-working journalism organizations over the years.

He discussed his book during the second installation of Emerson College's Changing the Conversation with Carole Simpson series with the school's Leader-In-Residence Carole Simpson last Thursday.

Harris, who has worked for the Wall Street Journal (six of those years serving as deputy chief at the Los Angeles bureau) and who is now senior editor of the Economist Group's CFO Magazine, said he wrote the book because he "owed it to the profession."

"It was astounding that these stories had not been written before because that's what journalists love, it's what we do, and it's what inspires us to get into the job," Harris said. "I mean if we ask any of the members of the audience here 'why are you in journalism?' somewhere very close to their heart is.going to be [a] Woodward and Bernstein [type] story."

Harris's book covers Pulitzer winners ranging from the New York Times' for publishing the Pentagon Papers to the Times-Picayune (New Orleans) and Sun Herald (Biloxi, Miss.) for their hard work chronicling the tragic events in the aftermath of Hurricane Katirna. Harris said he found himself "falling in love" with the Katrina pieces.


"When I did the book I tended to fall in love with the David and Goliath stories. With the small paper that took on an insurmountable project or that found itself stuck in a hole that was too deep to get out of," Harris said. "I love those stories of great challenge."

Maxine Giza, 24, an Emerson graduate broadcast journalism student, said she enjoyed when Harris discussed the New York Times' Pulitzer prize-winning stories about the people who died in the 9/11 attacks and the Boston Globe's coverage on the Catholic priest sexual abuse scandal.

"It was very interesting to hear about them, especially being from Massachusetts, and how the Globe held onto that story [which later won the Pulitzer for their work], because I am familiar with the story," Giza said.

Harris talked about how the "stories behind the stories" were his inspiration to write the book.

"They are fascinating stories they're sometimes told over several scotches in a bar, but they're rarely told in a form that students and journalists who aren't drinkers in a bar can learn about how things work," Harris said. "And finding, as I did, this huge void in the literature of journalism was irresistible to me. It's irresistible to me because I'd gotten knee deep in it and found that I was in a good position to do this book.