Portland Alternative Weekly Awarded Pulitzer

Last week's insightful critique of area weeklies included a summation of Portland's Willamette Weekly. "Not a bad paper," we said. Little did we know that members of the Pulitzer Board in New York City would follow our links to the Oregon weekly and agree with us. Apparently, the Pulitzer Board likes to make a big fuss over things, though, and their way of saying "not a bad paper" involves a whole award ceremony rigamorale. Something we're sure we'll never have to worry about ourselves. For those who don't know, a Pulitzer Prize is like a Bloggie, but for journalists. So to the Willamette Weekly we'd like to say, "Holy Shit!" and also, "Congratulations!"

For a distinguished example of investigative reporting by an individual or team, presented as a single article or series, Ten thousand dollars ($10,000).

Awarded to Nigel Jaquiss of Willamette Week, Portland, Ore., for his investigation exposing a former governor’s long concealed sexual misconduct with a 14-year-old girl.

The Pulitzer was awarded to Nigel Jaquiss for an investigative article he wrote on an improper sexual relationship Neil Goldschmidt had with his 14-year-old babysitter. Goldschmidt was the governor of Oregon. Just before the article's publication Goldschmidt learned of it and confessed to The Oregonian, who had passed on leads that led Jaquiss to the story.