Since 1917, the Pulitzer Prizes have been journalism’s highest honors. But for Col. Robert R. McCormick, the Chicago Tribune’s owner for the first half of this century, they were just another manifestation of the effete New York scene.
“He regarded the Pulitzers … as the work of `a mutual admiration society’ of cultural gatekeepers in the East,” writes Richard Norton Smith in his newly published biography, “The Colonel: The Life and Legend of Robert R. McCormick” (Houghton Mifflin).
So, it wasn’t surprising that for more than two decades-from the late 1930s to 1960-the Tribune refused to compete for the awards. What is remarkable, however, is that, even with that self-imposed hiatus, the newspaper has managed to net 18 Pulitzers.
The Tribune’s winners
1932: John T. McCutcheon, for editorial cartooning for “A Wise Economist Asks a Question,” in which a squirrel asks a victim of a bank failure, “But why didn’t you save some money for the future, when times were good?” To which the man says, “I did.”
1936: Wilfred C. Barber, posthumously, for foreign correspondence for his reports from the war in Ethiopia, where he died of malaria and blood poisoning.
1961: Carey Orr, for editorial cartooning for “The Kindly Tiger,” in which the Soviet Union is depicted as a tiger, labeled “Khrushy’s Kat,” offering a ride to an African seeking freedom from colonial interests.
1962: George Bliss, for investigative reporting for uncovering scandals in the Metropolitan Sanitary District.
1972: William Jones, for investigative reporting for exposing the collusion between police and some large ambulance companies to restrict service in low-income areas.
1973 The staff of the Chicago Tribune, for local reporting for uncovering flagrant vote fraud in the primary election of March 21, 1972.
1975 William Mullen (reporter) and Ovie Carter (photographer), for international reporting for coverage of famines in Africa and India.
1976: The staff of the Chicago Tribune, for investigative reporting for two series that uncovered widespread abuses in federal housing programs in Chicago and exposed the shocking conditions at two private Chicago hospitals.
1979: Paul Gapp, for architecture criticism.
1983: Richard Locher, for editorial cartooning on subjects ranging from President Ronald Reagan to the Middle East to home computers.
1985: Jeff MacNelly, for editorial cartooning poking fun at such liberal icons as Rev. Jesse Jackson and Walter Mondale.
1986: Jack Fuller, for editorial writing on constitutional issues.
1987: Jeff Lyon and Peter Gorner, for explanatory journalism for a series on the implications of the revolutionary medical treatment gene therapy.
1988: Dean Baquet, William Gaines and Ann Marie Lipinski, for investigative reporting for a series detailing the self-interest and waste that plagued the Chicago City Council.
1989: Clarence Page, for commentary for columns on local and national affairs.
1989: Lois Wille, for editorial writing on a variety of local issues.
1994: Bruce Dold, for editorial writing on the death of 3-year-old Joseph Wallace and the failure of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services to protect him.
1994: Ronald Kotulak, for explanatory journalism for two series on developments in neurological science.
