Ganim / Patriot-News Win Pulitzer for Sandusky / PSU Coverage

I do not have the time for research, but now I am wondering about back=to-back/multiple Pulitzers.

 

Shot, can you get her to autograph a pair of hot pink socks for ijag?

 

I don't see her enough to throw a pen in her direction.

I believe her mailing address is the Centre County Courthouse steps.

 

Apologies if this has been posted, but Poynter with a good postscript story.

http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/top-stories/170646/patriot-news-first-pulitzer-win-honors-papers-legend-sara-ganim-mentor/

 

A Ganim quote from the Poynter story linked just above:

“Better than any award,” she said in post-Pulitzer newsroom remarks to the 19 full-time staffers on Monday, “the most rewarding thing through this whole process has been people telling me that this story and our courage has changed their minds about local reporting, and we all know that there are a lot of minds yet to change.” Continuing that rallying cry in a telephone interview Tuesday, she said that “there’s been a feeling that we don’t do what we used to do, and that we’re not as good as we used to be. A lot of that changed with the reaction to this story. People have been telling me that it restored their faith in local journalism, and that it was wrong what people had been saying about local newspapers.”

See, the thing is, I think a lot of good work still goes on at local newspapers (and larger ones, too).

People just don't read it, and so, they don't know it.

Ganim's work came to the fore not only because of its excellence but because of a perfect storm of events, her work and some already existing conditions.

This story was ripe for the picking, and the spotlight shined and people noticed simply because of a confluence of subject matter - dirty, voyeuristic, unthinkable stuff involving a public, known, frantically followed subject, people and university (Paterno, his staff, football, PSU) -- combined with a built-in fan base/readership that would have been drawn to the stories even had the reporting not been so great, dogged and determined.

I'd submit that it isn't that newspapers aren't still doing some great work. But it is rarely realized, read or recognized by people who, nowadays are more likely to just get news from tweets, or who jump on the computer for an hour before work, read the main headlines on, oh, their three favorite web sites, check their email, give Facebook a quick look, and then, are off, until the next time they randomly feel like checking their phones.

The difference here was that the convergence of everything prompted people to actually read the stories.

 

People still read newspapers, and know there's good work in them. Whether they read it online or in print, they're still read.

What hamstrings newspapers isn't the format. It's the sense of objectivity. Few people want that. They want anger, rage, kneejerk emotions, rants, time-killing micro-analysis, something that encapsulates how they "feel" in the moment. They want Pinterest in words. They want "Ooh, pop culture reference, ooh, clever joke, ooh, alcohol, ooh, cute people, ooh, new gadget, ooh, curse words." It's a trend, not a forever thing, but it's not easy to withstand. Especially when gifted writers so easily and skillfully indulge in it.

 

Today, she wrapped up the whole thing in a very readable piece, even for someone who has been following this steadily.

http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2012/06/penn_states_reputation_image_s.html#incart_mce

 

Agreed. She did a very good job.

 

It's not easy to find a reporter as dogged and a writer as talented in one 24-year-old. She's fantastic.

 

I'm sure she's not done, either. There's going to be plenty more after this as the story turns to the civil cases.

 

I put the over/under at her being gone at August 1.

 

I was wondering today, if Ganim had never worked in Harrisburg, or if she'd chosen some field other than journalism, how would this case have played out differently? Is some powerful person able to make it go away? Probably not. But she did report that a Grand Jury was looking into Sandusky long before the horrifying indictment ever came out. If she had been less dogged, or not there, I wonder if the Tickle Monster is still working out in the PSU weight room, even today.