美国国家公共电台 NPR New York Daily News And ProPublica Win Pulitzer For Public Service Journalism

 

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

Today the Pulitzer Prizes for journalism¹ and the arts were announced. Big papers like The Washington Post, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal were all honored for their work. But the prize for investigative reporting went to West Virginia's Charleston Gazette-Mail, circulation 37,000. NPR's Lynn Neary has more.

LYNN NEARY, BYLINE²: Journalist Eric Eyre didn't think he had much chance of winning a Pulitzer Prize.

ERIC EYRE: Small newspapers like ours usually don't win these big awards.

NEARY: Eyre won for his investigative reporting into the huge number of opioid drugs that major wholesale³ drug companies flooded into small towns in West Virginia.

EYRE: For instance, Kermit has a population of 392 people. And one pharmacy⁴ in the small town of Kermit, W.V., received nearly 9 million hydrocodone pills over just a two-year period.

NEARY: In addition to wrongdoing by the drug companies, Eyre found that local doctors prescribed the drugs and small pharmacies⁵ sold them.

EYRE: Surprisingly, it was mostly the mom and pop pharmacies, the independently-owned pharmacies. It wasn't the Rite⁶ Aids and the Walgreens.

NEARY: The Pulitzer for national reporting went to David Fahrenthold of The Washington Post for his coverage⁷ of Donald Trump⁸'s charitable giving. Fahrenthold says the idea for his story came to him while he was covering a Trump campaign rally.

DAVID FAHRENTHOLD: He stops the rally and he brings a local veterans group up on stage. And Trump gives them this giant check, you know, like a 4 foot long golf-tournament-sized check, perfect for the cameras to see, that says Donald J. Trump Foundation on the top. It's for $100,000 to this veterans group. And on the bottom the check says make America great again.

NEARY: Fahrenthold says that got him wondering about Trump's contributions to both the vets⁹ and to other charities. In the end, he says, he uncovered two major findings.

FAHRENTHOLD: Between 2008 and 2015, a time which he'd been promising¹⁰ millions and millions to charity, I found one gift out of his own pocket for less than $10,000. That's one thing. The other thing was he was using this personal foundation, the Donald J. Trump Foundation, in ways that broke the law or appeared to break the law.

NEARY: The top honor, the public service Pulitzer, went to the New York Daily News and ProPublica for uncovering the abuse of eviction¹¹ rules by police in New York City. In addition to journalism, the Pulitzers also honor arts and letters. The drama Pulitzer went to Lynn Nottage for her play "Sweat" about factory workers fearful of losing their jobs.

(SOUNDBITE OF PLAY, "SWEAT")

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) They got buttons now - boop (ph) - that can replace all of us - boop, boop.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character, laughter) Come on, man. You're being paranoid.

NEARY: Nottage set her play in Reading, Pa. She spent more than two years visiting the town and talking to the people there.

LYNN NOTTAGE: No one ever spoke¹² of their city in present tense, they always spoke of it in past tense. And that really broke my heart. And then when I pushed them further, people spoke a great deal about feeling invisible. We feel as though our city's government doesn't see us. We feel as though the rest of the country doesn't see it.

NEARY: The prize for fiction went to Colson Whitehead's "The Underground Railroad," which also won the National Book Award. The idea behind the book is a simple conceit¹³. The Underground Railroad is a real railroad. Each stop is in a different state. And each stop vividly¹⁴ depicts¹⁵ a different aspect of the horrors of slavery. Readers follow the journey of a young slave, Cora, as she tries to make her way to freedom. In this passage, Whitehead describes how Cora's grandmother was first sold into slavery.

COLSON WHITEHEAD: (Reading) Cora's grandmother was sold a few times on the trek¹⁶ to the fort, passed between slavers for cowry shells and glass beads¹⁷. It was hard to say how much they paid for her in Ouidah, as she was part of a bulk purchase - 88 human souls for 60 crates¹⁸ of rum and gunpowder¹⁹ - the price arrived upon after the standard haggling²⁰ in coast English.

NEARY: The history prize went to Heather Ann Thompson for "Blood In The Water." And Hisham Matar won the prize for autobiography²¹ for "The Return: Fathers, Sons And The Land In Between." Lynn Neary, NPR News, Washington.

1 journalism   

n.新闻工作，报业

参考例句：

• He's a teacher but he does some journalism on the side.他是教师，可还兼职做一些新闻工作。
• He had an aptitude for journalism.他有从事新闻工作的才能。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 wholesale   

n.批发；adv.以批发方式；vt.批发，成批出售

参考例句：

• The retail dealer buys at wholesale and sells at retail.零售商批发购进货物，以零售价卖出。
• Such shoes usually wholesale for much less.这种鞋批发出售通常要便宜得多。

4 pharmacy   

n.药房，药剂学，制药业，配药业，一批备用药品

参考例句：

• She works at the pharmacy.她在药房工作。
• Modern pharmacy has solved the problem of sleeplessness.现代制药学已经解决了失眠问题。

5 pharmacies   

药店

参考例句：

• Still, 32 percent of the pharmacies filled the prescriptions. 但仍然有32%的药剂师配发了这两张药方。 来自互联网
• Chinese herbal pharmacies, and traditional massage therapists in the Vancouver telephone book. 中药店，和传统的按摩师在温哥华的电话簿里。 来自互联网

6 rite   

n.典礼，惯例，习俗

参考例句：

• This festival descends from a religious rite.这个节日起源于宗教仪式。
• Most traditional societies have transition rites at puberty.大多数传统社会都为青春期的孩子举行成人礼。

7 coverage   

n.报导，保险范围，保险额，范围，覆盖

参考例句：

• There's little coverage of foreign news in the newspaper.报纸上几乎没有国外新闻报道。
• This is an insurance policy with extensive coverage.这是一项承保范围广泛的保险。

8 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

9 vets   

abbr.veterans （复数）老手，退伍军人；veterinaries （复数）兽医n.兽医( vet的名词复数 )；老兵；退伍军人；兽医诊所v.审查（某人过去的记录、资格等）( vet的第三人称单数 )；调查；检查；诊疗

参考例句：

• I helped train many young vets and veterinary nurses too. 我还帮助培训了许多年青的兽医和护士。 来自互联网
• In fact, we've expanded mental health counseling and services for our vets. 实际上，我们已经扩大了退伍军人的心理健康咨询和服务。 来自互联网

10 promising   

adj.有希望的，有前途的

参考例句：

• The results of the experiments are very promising.实验的结果充满了希望。
• We're trying to bring along one or two promising young swimmers.我们正设法培养出一两名有前途的年轻游泳选手。

11 eviction   

n.租地等的收回

参考例句：

• The family have won a temporary reprieve from eviction.这个家庭暂时免于被逐出。
• He claimed damages for unlawful eviction.他要求对非法驱逐作出赔偿。

12 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

13 conceit   

n.自负，自高自大

参考例句：

• As conceit makes one lag behind,so modesty helps one make progress.骄傲使人落后，谦虚使人进步。
• She seems to be eaten up with her own conceit.她仿佛已经被骄傲冲昏了头脑。

14 vividly   

adv.清楚地，鲜明地，生动地

参考例句：

• The speaker pictured the suffering of the poor vividly.演讲者很生动地描述了穷人的生活。
• The characters in the book are vividly presented.这本书里的人物写得栩栩如生。

15 depicts   

描绘，描画( depict的第三人称单数 )； 描述

参考例句：

• The book vividly depicts French society of the 1930s. 这本书生动地描绘了20 世纪30 年代的法国社会。
• He depicts the sordid and vulgar sides of life exclusively. 他只描写人生肮脏和庸俗的一面。

16 trek   

vi.作长途艰辛的旅行；n.长途艰苦的旅行

参考例句：

• We often go pony-trek in the summer.夏季我们经常骑马旅行。
• It took us the whole day to trek across the rocky terrain.我们花了一整天的时间艰难地穿过那片遍布岩石的地带。

17 beads   

n.（空心）小珠子( bead的名词复数 )；水珠；珠子项链

参考例句：

• a necklace of wooden beads 一条木珠项链
• Beads of perspiration stood out on his forehead. 他的前额上挂着汗珠。

18 crates   

n. 板条箱, 篓子, 旧汽车 vt. 装进纸条箱

参考例句：

• We were using crates as seats. 我们用大木箱作为座位。
• Thousands of crates compacted in a warehouse. 数以千计的板条箱堆放在仓库里。

19 gunpowder   

n.火药

参考例句：

• Gunpowder was introduced into Europe during the first half of the 14th century.在14世纪上半叶，火药传入欧洲。
• This statement has a strong smell of gunpowder.这是一篇充满火药味的声明。

20 haggling   

v.讨价还价( haggle的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• I left him in the market haggling over the price of a shirt. 我扔下他自己在市场上就一件衬衫讨价还价。
• Some were haggling loudly with traders as they hawked their wares. 有些人正在大声同兜售货物的商贩讲价钱。 来自辞典例句

21 autobiography   

n.自传

参考例句：

• He published his autobiography last autumn.他去年秋天出版了自己的自传。
• His life story is recounted in two fascinating volumes of autobiography.这两卷引人入胜的自传小说详述了他的生平。