Washington Post reporter David Fahrenthold was a thorn in Donald Trump's side throughout the entire presidential campaign. And he probably deserved it just for getting the scoop on the infamous Access Hollywood tape.
But he also conducted a lengthy and fruitless hunt for an actual charitable donation made by Donald Trump. He used pen and paper to track his search, which led to Trump calling him "a nasty guy."
The Pulitzer is a set of prizes awarded for written excellence in the fields of newspaper, magazine and online journalism, literature, and musical composition in the U.S. Joseph Pulitzer established the prize in 1917 after having made a fortune as a newspaper publisher. Columbia University, which named its journalism school after him, administers the prize each year. Twenty category winners receive $15,000 and a certificate. The winner of the public service journalism category gets a gold medal.
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Fahrenthold reacted to the prize in typically understated fashion, a newspaper reporter to his core.
What a wonderful day! Thank you all for the good wishes today, and thanks to everyone who helped last year. I'm so incredibly grateful. https://t.co/gUabnrZ6Ux
— David Fahrenthold (@Fahrenthold) April 10, 2017
He wrote at length about his year covering the candidate in a piece published December.
"The point of my stories was not to defeat Trump," Fahrenthold wrote. "The point was to tell readers the facts about this man running for president. How reliable was he at keeping promises? How much moral responsibility did he feel to help those less fortunate than he?"
Read the story of his full year covering Trump here. His Pulitzer-winning package is covered at length here.
The full list of winners below.
Journalism
Public Service: New York Daily News and ProPublica
Breaking News Reporting: Staff of the East Bay Times
Investigative Reporting: Eric Eyre of the Charleston Gazette-Mail
Explanatory Reporting: International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, McClatchy and the Miami Herald
Local Reporting: The Salt Lake Tribune Staff
National Reporting: David Fahrenthold of The Washington Post
International Reporting: Staff of The New York Times
Feature Writing: C.J. Chivers of The New York Times
Commentary: Peggy Noonan of The Wall Street Journal
Criticism: Hilton Als of The New Yorker
Editorial Writing: Art Cullen of The Storm Lake Times, Storm Lake, IA
Editorial Cartooning: Jim Morin of Miami Herald
Breaking News Photography: Daniel Berehulak, freelance photographer, for work in The New York Times
Feature Photography: E. Jason Wambsgans of Chicago Tribune
Letters and Drama
Fiction: The Underground Railroad, by Colson Whitehead
Drama: Sweat, by Lynn Nottage
History: Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy, by Heather Ann Thompson
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Biography: The Return: Fathers, Sons and the Land in Between, by Hisham Matar
Poetry: Olio, by Tyehimba Jess (Wave Books)
General Nonfiction: Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City, by Matthew Desmond (Crown)
Music: Angel’s Bone, by Du Yun