Months after lifting a veil of secrecy from the National Security Agency's surveillance operations, The Washington Post and The Guardian won a Pulitzer Prize for public service Monday. The two papers broke the story in tandem, relying on NSA documents provided by Edward Snowden.
The Pulitzer Prize win comes days after two journalists at the heart of the story, Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras, received a George Polk Award for national security reporting. On that occasion, Greenwald said, "I hope that as journalists we realize not only the importance of defending our own rights, but also those of our sources like Edward Snowden."
But the Polk award rankled some, including Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., who called Greenwald "a disgrace." He added, "No American should give Glenn Greenwald an award for anything."
The staff of The Boston Globe won the Pulitzer for breaking news reporting, for what the Pulitzer panel called "its exhaustive and empathetic coverage of the Boston Marathon bombings and the ensuing manhunt that enveloped the city, using photography and a range of digital tools to capture the full impact of the tragedy."
The Pulitzer winners were announced Monday at Columbia University in New York City. We'll fill in this post with more details about the winners this afternoon.
In the writing and music categories, Donna Tartt's novel The Goldfinch won the fiction prize. The history prize went to The Internal Enemy: Slavery and War in Virginia, 1772-1832 by Alan Taylor.
Here's the complete list of winners announced today:
Journalism
Public Service: The Guardian US, The Washington Post
Breaking News Reporting: Staff of The Boston Globe
Investigative Reporting: Chris Hamby of The Center for Public Integrity, Washington, D.C. See related NPR story.
Explanatory Reporting: Eli Saslow of The Washington Post
Local Reporting: Will Hobson and Michael LaForgia of Tampa Bay Times
National Reporting: David Philipps of The Gazette, Colorado Springs, Colo.
International Reporting: Jason Szep and Andrew R.C. Marshall of Reuters
Feature Writing: No award
Commentary: Stephen Henderson of Detroit Free Press
Criticism: Inga Saffron of The Philadelphia Inquirer
Editorial Writing: Editorial Staff of The Oregonian, Portland
Editorial Cartooning: Kevin Siers of The Charlotte Observer
Breaking News Photography: Tyler Hicks of The New York Times
Feature Photography: Josh Haner of The New York Times
Letters, Drama And Music
Fiction: The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt (Little, Brown) See NPR's archive.
Drama: The Flick by Annie Baker
History: The Internal Enemy: Slavery and War in Virginia, 1772-1832 by Alan Taylor (W.W. Norton) See NPR's archive.
Biography or Autobiography: Margaret Fuller: A New American Life by Megan Marshall (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
Poetry: 3 Sections by Vijay Seshadri (Graywolf Press)
General Nonfiction: Toms River: A Story of Science and Salvation by Dan Fagin (Bantam Books) See NPR's archive.
Music: Become Ocean by John Luther Adams (Taiga Press/Theodore Front Musical Literature) See NPR's archive.
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