The National Enquirer, the number one source of news for people waiting to check out in the grocery store and not interested in the gum selection, is now eligible for journalism’s top honor: The Pulitzer Prize. The New York Times reports (very begrudgingly, I assume):
The Pulitzer Prize administrators have decided that The National Enquirer is eligible to compete for the awards, a person briefed on the matter said Thursday.
Enquirer editors said they had submitted an entry before the Feb. 1 deadline for their work on the John Edwards scandal, but it was not clear whether the publication qualified for the Pulitzers, widely considered the most coveted honor for American newspapers.
I know the Enquirer broke the whole Edwards affair story, but it took forever for anyone to actually believe them. That is their own fault. They fire out fake stories left and right about who is cheating on who with another fat celebrity getting plastic surgery on their death bed, so it was hard to take them seriously when they did have a real story.
Now that they are Pulitzer eligible, “legitimate” news organizations have to be fuming. This is like the news equivalent of some goth in high school trying out for the football team to the behest of all the real jocks, and then turning out to be really good at one winning play. It gives hope to me though. Perhaps one day one of my posts here will somehow be eligible for a Peabody or a Grammy or some kind of prestigious unnecessary lengthy metaphor award. A guy can dream.
