The National Enquirer and Its Pulitzer Run

“The Pulitzer Prize-winning National Enquirer.”
 
While you may not be hearing that phrase anytime soon, the infamous tabloid has come one step closer to journalism’s most respected prize for its reporting on the John Edwards scandal.
 
The ripple effect of the Enquirer’s scoop has led to a federal grand jury investigation of Edwards and changed attitudes in the media world. And even if some in the industry still doubt the legitimacy of this supermarket tabloid, the Enquirer’s success with the Edwards story proves that the mainstream media can’t afford to ignore tips and possible stories — even when they come from tabloids.
 
The tabloid's first story on Edwards ran on Oct. 10, 2007, to report that Edwards was having an affair with a woman who had worked for his campaign. The source: An anonymous caller to the paper’s tip line. As the Enquirer continued its investigation, it would eventually reveal filmmaker Rielle Hunter as Edwards’ mistress, and later, the mother of his child. The paper has also claimed that Edwards’ campaign funds were used to pay for the elaborate cover-up of his affair.
 
Subsequently, Edwards has been under investigation by a federal grand jury since last spring to see if his campaign funds were misused. The Huffington Post reports that the North Carolina grand jury is expected to announce whether Edwards will be indicted within the next two months.
 
The Enquirer submitted its work for the Pulitzer in the categories of “Investigative Reporting” and “National News Reporting” and was accepted by the Pulitzer Prize Committee in February, as first confirmed by The Huffington Post. (Pulitzer finalists are not made public in advance of the April 12 announcement of winners and finalists, though Enquirer editors have commented on the paper’s inclusion.)
 
Emily Miller, a Washington, D.C.-based politics and media writer and blogger for Huffington, confirmed the Enquirer’s Pulitzer acceptance through sources and is one of a number of media critics, columnists and bloggers supporting the Enquirer’s bid.
 
In a Feb. 18 blog post for Huffington, Miller talked about the grassroots campaign she started for the tabloid’s inclusion in the awards and how she saw that support grow:
 
The Pulitzer Board’s decision to give The Enquirer its rightful place in the competition for the award shows the old guard journalists recognize and respect the importance of the investigation by the paper’s reporters, photographers and editors.
 
And New York Times’ op-ed columnist Ross Douthat wrote in a Feb. 21 column that the Enquirer “might even deserve to win” a Pulitzer.
 
The mainstream media is now talking about the story that it ignored for months during an election year.
 
Of course, the Enquirer’s nomination still doesn’t negate the fact that the paper openly pays for confirmed news tips, and features plenty of celebrity gossip in each issue. But the paper stands by its reporting on the Edwards story; the details of which speak for itself.
 
"The fact that we may package this story along with the types of stories involving celebrities that are not typical of newspapers that the Pulitzer committee may look at on a yearly basis has nothing to do with the reporting,” Barry Levine, executive editor of the Enquirer, said to ABC News. “That persistence, that old-fashioned, shoe-leather reporting that we exhibited on this story, at the end of the day, is what the Pulitzer committee recognized.”
 
The Enquirer’s nomination is a lesson for journalists everywhere--tips can’t be ignored. In today’s highly competitive and crowded media environment, a media organization has to stand out to survive and has to commit itself to strong stories, solid investigative reporting and scoops that will generate readership. The Enquirer did all of this with the Edwards story.
 
As Miller stated in her Feb. 18 Huffington post, "The media establishment is also showing that it recognizes that the landscape has changed, so small or non-traditional outlets are breaking important stories."
 
If a traditional news publication isn’t going to investigate a lead or tip, a blogger, niche publication or journalist from a smaller media outlet will do so. The market is too competitive for journalists to pass on a story because it came from a tabloid or uncommon source.
 
While mainstream journalists overlooked the Enquirer’s Edwards story, the tabloid kept digging and unearthed details of a scandal that irreparably damaged John Edwards’ career and could have legal repercussions. The National Enquirer did investigative reporting work that most major news outlets would be proud to call their own.
 
As the Enquirer receives praise and congratulations from the peers who may not have identified themselves as peers just a few years ago, the paper continues its investigation into John Edwards. And its Edwards claims are no longer going unnoticed by the media world. But has the mainstream media learned to take notice of the tabloid’s other stories?
 
On Nov. 25, 2009, the Enquirer published a story claiming that Tiger Woods was having an affair. Less than two days later, Woods was involved in an early morning car accident at his home that was widely reported in the mainstream media.
 
After the accident, both the Woods scandal and media coverage exploded — numerous women contacted media outlets to say they also had been involved with Woods and countless rumors and theories circulated worldwide.
 
But would the media have followed up on the Enquirer’s Nov. 25 story if the accident never occurred?
 
The Enquirer’s Levine told ESPN that the paper held off on publishing the story for about a week, after reporters uncovered solid evidence of the affair:
 
“The irony is that had we published the story the week before, the infamous car accident might never have happened because Tiger would have been in Dubai and his wife might have challenged him on the story, but it might have been done by phone. So there might not have been this explosive argument that occurred late on the night of Thanksgiving. That’s fascinating in the sense that if the car accident never happened the mainstream media might not have jumped on the story the way they did and the real details of the scandal and all these women may not have surfaced.”
 
It’s impossible to know if the media would have pursued the Enquirer’s Woods story without the accident. To see if the media has learned from the Edwards-Enquirer tale, we'll just have to wait for the Enquirer's next big story to unfold.
 
Interested in reading more on the media, take a look at this story on Fox News.
 
(Photo credit: &y; C.C. 2.0)