The East Valley Tribune in the Phoenix area won a Pulitzer Prize for “Reasonable Doubt,” a five-part series that exposed how police protection suffered as Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio focused on efforts to combat illegal immigration. Reporters Ryan Gabrielson and Paul Giblin exposed slow emergency response times and lax criminal enforcement as the sheriff dedicated more of his agency's time and resources to seeking out illegal immigrants. The Pulitzer committee praised Gabrielson and Giblin for “their adroit use of limited resources to reveal, in print and online, how a popular sheriff's focus on immigration enforcement endangered investigation of violent crimes and other aspects of public safety.”
The New York Times won a Pulitzer for its coverage of the scandal that let to the resignation of Gov. Eliot Spitzer. The Washington Post quoted Times Executive Editor Bill Keller as saying the loudest newsroom applause was for reporter William Rashbaum, who played a key role in the story. “He just knows in his bones when there’s a story,” Keller said. “He has sources everywhere. [] As much as I love the idea of citizen journalism, it takes time to grow people like that.” Rashbaum is a board member of Criminal Justice Journalists, producer of this news digest.