The Big P

Pulitzer Day is traditionally draped in blues and greens for those news shops that fall into the have-nots category.  We mope, then marvel at the strong work performed in often-impossible circumstances - a war, a hurricane, a short-dump of disinformation.

Online these days, the awards seem to be seen through blue and red filters.

First, from Power Line, the conservative group blog, which headlines its piece "The Pulitzer Prize for Treason." That goes in Power Line's view to James Risen and Eric Lichtblau of the New York Times for "their treasonous contribution to the undermining of the highly classified National Security Agency surveillance program of al Qaeda-related terrorists." Blogger Scott Johnson has argued that the reporters violated the Espionage Act and aided the enemy during wartime.

The Pulitzer committee brought new shame, he wrote, having disgraced itself a year before by honoring an AP photograph of militants shooting a man on Haifa Street in Baghdad. Asking if the AP had prior knowledge of the incident, Power Line called that award "The Pulitzer Prize for Felony Murder."

Over at Betsy's Page, the Raleigh, N.C, history and government teacher responds to the Pulitzer awarded to Washington Post fashion critic Robin Givhan with "Gimme a break!" Blogger Betsy Newmark writes that Givhan for the past couple of years that "bashed the clothes that conservatives wore while going all tiddly for John Kerry's and John Edward's coiffures."

Newmark then catalogues the crimes against Givhan's fashion writing:

A criticism of Justice John G. Roberts Jr's wife for dressing her wife in pastels for the White House annoucement.

Hating the eyeliner worn by star-crossed Supremes nominee Harriet Miers.

Calling Mrs. Justice Sam Alito a tasteless frump.

Etcetera, etcetera.

Norwegianity isn't having any of that - although the lefty blogger is still steamed at Givhan for taking on Cynthia McKinney. The Wege writes:

The Times may piss me off frequently, but they ain't Dan "off on assignment" Rather, and there's no way Power Line or Captain's Quarters is going to snag some more glory at these guys' expense. The Pulitzers aren't handed out by wild-eyed anti-establishmentarians. This baby's been fact checked to no end, it was solid and people may well go to prison over this.

Screaming treason at the reporters makes no sense at all. Risen and Lichtblau have made their case in award-winning detail. The Pulitzer jury is somewhat more serious than Time Magazine's PR Stunt of the Year.

Somewhere in the middle, the Columbia Journalism Review online headlines its take on the prizes: "Pulitzers Draw a Line in the Sand."

Felix Gillette and Paul McLeary of CJR Daily write:

Both the James Risen, Eric Lichtblau story in the Times on secret, warrantless surveillance of phone calls and email by the National Security Agency, and the Dana Priest story in the Post on the CIA network of so-called black prisons in foreign countries where captives are held without trial or recourse, have been denounced by President Bush himself as all but traitorous disclosures. Thus, we seem to have a sort of face-off at the OK Corral between the Pulitzer Board and the Bush White House itself -- one that, among other things, throws into stark clarity the sharply different values that guide each institution.

UPDATE: Radio talker Bill Bennett would have those Times and Post reporters hang their certificates in jail cells. A commenter on Glenn Greenwald's blog links the audio here.