by Chuck Ross
President Donald Trump on Friday called on The Washington Post and New York Times to be stripped of Pulitzer Prizes that the newspapers received last year for reporting on Russiagate.
So funny that The New York Times & The Washington Post got a Pulitzer Prize for their coverage (100% NEGATIVE and FAKE!) of Collusion with Russia – And there was No Collusion! So, they were either duped or corrupt? In any event, their prizes should be taken away by the Committee!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 29, 2019
The Post and Times shared the 2018 Pulitzer for a series of reports on developments in the Russia investigation.
Many of the core allegations in the reports were undercut with the recent revelation that special counsel Robert Mueller did not find collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government.
“The investigation did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities,” Mueller wrote in his 400-page report, according to Attorney General William Barr.
According to Barr, Mueller also did not establish “that any U.S. person or Trump campaign official or associate” conspired or “knowingly coordinated” with Russian efforts to use social media platforms to spread disinformation during the 2016 campaign or to hack Democrats’ emails and disseminate them online.
On Sunday, after Barr released the summary of Mueller’s findings, Donald Trump Jr. also blasted The Post and Times over their award-winning reports.
They should convert those Pulitzer’s to #fakenews awards. How do you win a reporting award for reporting fake news? There should be a recall. Those Pulitzer’s were earned like Liz Warren’s tenure. https://t.co/5Bak6VTQ5G
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) March 24, 2019
In announcing the awards in April 2018, the Pulitzer committee praised the Post and Times’ Russia reporting.
The Post and Times received the award “for deeply sourced, relentlessly reported coverage in the public interest that dramatically furthered the nation’s understanding of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and its connections to the Trump campaign, the President-elect’s transition team and his eventual administration,” the committee said.
None of the 20 stories cited by the Pulitzer committee have come under particular scrutiny. But most furthered the narrative of collusion between the Trump team and Russia.
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Chuck Ross is a reporter for the Daily Caller News Foundation. Follow Chuck on Twitter.
Background Photo “Washington Post” by Paul O. CC BY 2.0.
