Pulitzer for Reporting on the Biggest Tar Sands Spill You've Never Heard Of

[unhappycamper]

http://www.commondreams.org/further/2013/04/16-2



Pulitzer for Reporting on the Biggest Tar Sands Spill You've Never Heard Of
04.16.13 - 10:47 PM

The online, low-profile, non-profit InsideClimate News won a Pulitzer Prize for national reporting for "The Dilbit Disaster: Inside the Biggest Oil Spill You've Never Heard Of," its seven-month investigation into the million-gallon spill of Canadian tar sands oil into the Kalamazoo River in 2010 - triggering the most expensive, and still unfinished, cleanup in U.S. history - which grew into a damning look at national pipeline safety issues and the hazards posed by diluted bitumen, or “dilbit.” Yes: same stuff in the ExxonMobil spill in Arkansas, and Keystone XL.

[limpyhobbler]

1. How cool.

Here's another article on this from the NY Times.

A Pulitzer Prize, but Without a Newsroom to Put It In

When three reporters for InsideClimate News found out they won the Pulitzer Prize for national reporting on Monday, none were in the same city — Elizabeth McGowan was in Washington, Lisa Song was in Boston and David Hasemyer was in New York.

“We’re a virtual organization,” said the publisher of the six-year-old Web site, David Sassoon, from his office in New York. So the celebration took place in a telephone conference call; whatever Champagne flowed, flowed in separate locations.

InsideClimate News may be the leanest news start-up ever to be presented with a Pulitzer, journalism’s highest honor, a prize that is typically awarded to regional and national newspapers. It beat out 50 other entrants and two finalists, The Boston Globe and The Washington Post, for the prize.

With a full-time staff of just seven and a nonprofit business model, InsideClimate News exemplifies a new breed of news organization that depends on donations, both from rich charitable foundations and a handful of ordinary readers.
...

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/17/business/media/insideclimate-news-hopes-to-build-on-pulitzer.html

[hatrack]

2. And the crowning irony? It's the NYT reporting on this . . . .

The "Paper Of Record" that just eliminated environmental coverage, while promising to maintain its environment blog, and then canceled that as well.

Three words of advice for the Gray Lady: Suck. On. It.

[limpyhobbler]

3. At first I thought you meant Margaret Thatcher so I was like "gross?"

She's the Iron Lady.

Yeah it seems like the NY times isn't too interested in sending out investigative reporters to snoop around oil spills. I tried searching their site for coverage of the Arkansas spill, and it seems pretty scant.

Only one story about the spill ("Exxon Mobil Pipeline Ruptures in Central Arkansas&quot , and one story about the reaction ("Pipeline Spills Stir New Criticism of Keystone Proposal&quot

Nothing about the way Exxon is controlling the area trying to keep reporters out, which of course they wouldn't know because they probably haven't tried to get in. Not too interested in holding big oil's feet to the fire. Probably wouldn't be good for business.

[progressoid]

4. Rec.