Congratulations to Sun Sentinel for winning the Pulitzer Prize for public service

I was thrilled to see the South Florida Sun-Sentinel win the Pulitzer Prize for public service this week.

The Pulitzer judges cited the Sun Sentinel’s stories for “exposing failings by school and law enforcement officials before and after the deadly shooting rampage at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.” This is the second time the Sun Sentinel has won the Pulitzer for public service reporting, the most prestigious Pulitzer award.

I worked at the Fort Lauderdale newspaper in the ’80s after graduating from Northwestern Univesity, writing about the airlines, including Eastern Airlines. There was a lot of labor unrest, with former astronaut Frank Borman at the helm. It culminated in Eastern’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing.

We visited Sun Sentinel friends in Fort Lauderdale this past Christmas, exchanging memories. We all keep in touch on Facebook — a medium of choice for most of us “boomers.”

A colleague was Michael Connelly, now a mystery writer. Other longtime friends still work there. One of them, Doreen Christensen, is pictured in The New York Times in a newsroom photo.

Congratulations Sun Sentinel friends and former colleagues! It was a challenging and heartbreaking assignment in extreme circumstances. And the staff has been shrinking in the wake of continued disruption in the newspaper business.

A link to the stories is here.

Author: jeffpelline

Jeff Pelline is a veteran editor and award-winning journalist - in print and online. He is publisher of Sierra FoodWineArt magazine and its website SierraCulture.com. Jeff covered business and technology for The San Francisco Chronicle for 12 years, and he was a founding editor and Editor of CNET News for eight years, among other positions. Jeff has a bachelor's degree from UC Berkeley and a master's from Northwestern University. His hobbies include sailing, swimming, and trout fishing in the Sierra. View all posts by jeffpelline