View From the Phlipside – National Enquirer and the Pulitzer

My name is Jay Phillippi and I’ve spent my life in and around the media.  TV, Radio, the movies and more.  I love them and I hate them and I always have an opinion.  Call this The View From the Phlipside.

I’m not sure but I think the world might be coming to an end.  I know the Aztecs claim we have until 2012 but I think they’re off by a couple of years.  Not that I blame them they couldn’t have have seen this coming.  Who could?  I mean the National Enquirer competing for a Pulitzer Prize?

Yes you heard me right.  The committee that oversees the Pulitzer which the prize of all prizes in the world of journalism has acknowledged that they will accept submissions from America’s best known supermarket tabloid in not one but two categories.  They will compete for the prize in “Investigative Reporting” and “National News Reporting”.  The committee initially said that due to several technicalities the Enquirer couldn’t enter.  Give them credit that after reviewing the submission the committee changed their minds.

There are two things that leap right out at me about this story.  First is the level of support the tabloid is getting from some very serious, mainstream sources.  The Washington Post acknowledged that The Enquirer had scooped the rest of the industry.  Emily Miller at the Huffington Post has been campaigning for the inclusion.  It probably made some of the great and mighty of the journalistic old boy network sick to their stomachs but they couldn’t argue with the work.  That’s the other thing that grabbed me.  The National Enquirer actually deserves consideration for the big prize.  You see it was the Enquirer that dug up the John Edwards affair, they got the story first, they followed it and they got it right.  The former Senator from North Carolina and presidential candidate was brought to heel NOT by the New York Times but by The National Enquirer.  The National Enquirer and the Pulitzer Prize.  Did you ever think you’d see the day?

A lot of the reporting on the story is a little outside the parameters of the award.  They began following the story in 2007 and did a lot more in 2008 while the award is for work in 2009.  I will admit that I have a soft spot in my heart for the underdog, the little guy against the giants.  I’m just not sure what might happen if the Enquirer were to actually WIN.  The world just might end.

Call that The View From the Phlipside.

“The View From the Phlipside” airs on WRFA-LP Jamestown NY.  You can listen to WRFA online HERE
Copyright – Jay Phillippi 2010