So, You Won a Pulitzer

This year’s Pulitzer Prizes for journalism were announced yesterday, and the announcement landed on the front pages of newspapers across the country. But how important is the Pulitzer? Last year, Jack Shafer wrote that “the Pulitzers are a kind of show business,” awarded by “a formula composed of one part log-rolling, two parts merit, three parts ‘we owe him one,’ and four parts random distribution.”