Sex Scandal Stories Gets Pulitzer Nod

The New York Times received five Pulitzer Prizes on Monday, including one for breaking the call-girl scandal that destroyed Gov. Eliot Spitzer's career.

The Las Vegas Sun won the Pulitzer for public service for exposing a high death rate among construction workers on the Las Vegas Strip.

America's top journalism awards were announced after one of the most depressing years the newspaper industry has ever seen, with layoffs, bankruptcies and closings brought on by the recession and an exodus of readers and advertisers to the Internet.

The Detroit Free Press won in the local reporting category for obtaining a trove of sexually explicit text messages that brought down the city's mayor. The judges also awarded a Pulitzer in local reporting to the East Valley Tribune of Mesa, Arizona, for revealing how a sheriff's focus on immigration enforcement endangered investigations of other crimes.

The only other multiple winner was the St. Petersburg Times. It was honored for national reporting for fact-checking the candidates during the 2008 White House campaign, and for feature writing for Lane DeGregory's story on a neglected girl who was unable to talk or feed herself.

No Pulitzers were awarded for coverage of the biggest financial crisis since the Depression. And despite a rule change that allowed online-only news organizations to compete for Pulitzers for the first time, none of them won any prizes. Only American news organizations are eligible for the prize.

The Free Press' award came less than a month after the Detroit paper cut back home delivery to three days a week.

The Pulitzer for editorial cartooning went to Steve Breen of The San Diego Union-Tribune, which was sold last month to a private equity firm after its advertising plunged 40 percent since 2006 and it forced employees to take unpaid furloughs.

The Las Vegas newspaper was cited for the "courageous reporting" of Alexandra Berzon, whose stories about lax enforcement of safety rules on the Las Vegas Strip led to changes in policy and improved workplace conditions.

The death toll on the Strip had reached nine in 16 months as casino giants undertook a $32 billion building boom, including the largest private commercial development in U.S. history. Berzon described how the rush to build quickly and at highly congested work sites led to safety shortcuts that contributed to deaths.

The awards also follow a difficult year for the Times, which is dealing with the burden of a heavy debt, forcing the distinguished paper to ask employees for pay cuts and seek an infusion of cash from a Mexican billionaire investor.

The Times was first to report that Spitzer was a client of a high-end prostitution ring, leading to his shocking resignation. The paper also won for international reporting for its coverage of deepening U.S. involvement in Afghanistan and Pakistan; for criticism, for Holland Cotter's art reviews; for feature photography, for Damon Winter's coverage of Barack Obama's campaign; and for investigative reporting to David Barstow, for revealing how the networks used military commentators who had ties to the Pentagon or defense contractors.

The Free Press helped expose a steamy extramarital affair between Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and an aide. Kilpatrick pleaded guilty, lost his office and served 99 days in jail for lying under oath about the affair during a whistle-blower lawsuit.

For the first time, eligibility for the Pulitzers was expanded to news organizations that publish online only. But no Internet-only publication won an award.

The Pulitzers are the most prestigious award in journalism and are given out annually by Columbia University on the recommendation of the 19-person board. Each award carries a $10,000 prize except for the public service award, which is a gold medal.

In the arts, "Ruined," Lynn Nottage's harrowing tale of survival set against the backdrop of an African civil war, won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for drama.

Other winners: Elizabeth Strout for fiction ("Olive Kitteridge") and Annette Gordon-Reed, who won the history prize for "The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family," which won the National Book Award last fall.

The general nonfiction award went to "Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II" by Douglas A. Blackmon.

The biography Pulitzer was awarded to Jon Meacham's "American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House."

Steve Reich took the music prize for "Double Sextet," while celebrated poet W.S. Merwin won for poetry ("The Shadow of Sirius").