Joseph Pulitzer must be turning over in his grave.
The publisher, for whom the annual Pulitzer Prizes are named, never dreamed that a salacious gossip rag would be eligible to compete for one of his coveted news awards.
Yet the prize administrators this week confirmed that the National Enquirer qualified for this year's competition among American newspapers.
Apparently the weekly collection of scandal mongering meets the eligibility requirement because it is produced on newsprint and calls itself a "newspaper."
Its approved entry cites the publication's breaking of the John Edwards scandal involving an extramarital affair and out-of-wedlock fatherhood of the former senator and presidential candidate.
Thankfully, the actual prizes for news reporting, editorials, news photography and public service go to real print journalists and newspapers that produce extraordinary professional results.
But these are unusual times embracing pseudo news networks like Faux and political issues like pseudo death panels and pseudo presidential religious beliefs and foreign birth embraced by bottom feeders in the gene pool. (21 FEBRUARY 2010)