This year’s list of Pulitzer Prize winners and finalists includes a large number of women. Of course, like many women, I’m thrilled to hear this news, but another part of me is thrilled for what this will do for pop culture. What’s the connection you ask? Well, I’ll tell you.
Last weekend I went to see the new movie, State of Play, an entertaining thriller about D.C politics and journalism. In the movie, Russell Crowe plays a seasoned reporter who teaches a naive blogger (played by Rachel McAdams) the ropes of journalism.
While he schools Miss McAdams, he also lectures his boss, the uber sexy Helen Mirren, about journalistic integrity.
I enjoyed the movie and I liked Crowe’s character, but I kept thinking, why does Crowe have to be the teacher/wise reporter? Why can’t it be his boss, Helen Mirren, teaching him the ropes? Why when we see movies about news reporters, do we always see the seasoned male teaching the ambitious, but inexperienced, female reporter?
Hopefully art will imitate life and we’ll see more movies in the future of hard hitting Pulitzer toting female reporters. Here are some of the winners from this year’s Pulitzers:
Public Service Journalism: Las Vegas Sun, and notably the courageous reporting by Alexandra Berzon
Explanatory Reporting: Bettina Boxall and Julie Cart of Los Angeles Times
Music History: The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family by Annette Gordon-Reed (W.W. Norton & Company)
Drama: Ruined by Lynn Nottage
Fiction: Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout (Random House)
Congratulations ladies. Keep up the great work.
