Why Michael Yon Will Not Win a Pulitzer

Rand Simberg writes that if things in Iraq continue to improve, Michael Yon's photo I posted earlier should win a Pulitzer prize. Well today, the New York Times reported (albeit in typical Times fashion, on page A19) that al-Qaeda has been forcefully evicted from Baghdad so there's the continued good news. Simberg believes it won't happen and I tend to agree.

Here's why Yon will not win the Pulitzer:

Yon is a non-affiliated reporter/photog, he's paying his own way and therefore is a threat to traditional, dead-tree media. The fact that he has been offered a chance to be co-opted and controlled but refused makes him an alien to traditional media types. The Pulitzer committee won't even give Yon's picture a second look despite the deeper meaning it translates about the state of Baghdad. Yon is doomed because he's a part of the new media and he will be shunned because of it. Remember, the Pulitzer committee has not rescinded the award given to Stalin apologist Walter Duranty.

Second, Yon is an ex-military man--and special forces at that. The media are the only ones capable of reporting in an unbiased fashion--at least in their minds. To them, Yon must have a pro-military ideological position and cannot report news in a balanced way. The fact that Yon has been meticulously non-ideological will escape them completely.

Third, Yon did not attend a prestigious journalism school such as Columbia so his work is inferior on that point alone. Bernie Goldberg sums up media elitism very well in Arrogance as did Laura Ingraham in Shut Up and Sing. If you aren't Ivy League trained, you are a lesser journalist. If you are a graduate of a hillbilly school like the University of Florida, you might as well not even apply.

Lastly, the fact that the picture is beautiful and conveys so much for a simple act will be a serious handicap should it make it to the committee. Look at last years winner, it is a stunning picture to be sure, but like most winners it portrays conflict (and especially conflict in which Israel is featured), Yon's picture does not. Yon's picture would appear in the category of Breaking News Photography and it wouldn't meet the liberal Pulitzer agenda. This is last years winner of an Israeli woman fighting against the Israeli Defense Forces as they were evicting her:

The runners up included a photo of the Israel-Hezbollah conflict so you can see where the committee's minds are.

Honestly, the esteem of the Pulitzer prize has been demeaned over time as has the Nobel Peace Prize. It's a sad day that a Pulitzer now means slightly more than receiving an award from the UN.

I for one would like to urge everyone to encourage your local fish wrap to run Yon's photo and keep tabs on the responses. I fear that no major paper will bite.