100 Great Stories

Reported, Investigated, Written, Produced, Filmed, Edited, Photographed, Anchored, and/or Tweeted by Columbia Journalists

SELECTION PROCESS

We compiled this collection by culling the school’s archives, researching the recipients of a wide array of journalism prizes, consulting with colleagues and scouring some of the best journalism ever produced. In fall 2011, we enlisted our faculty and a group of distinguished judges to vote for their favorites on the first installment of 50 Great Stories. Then, in 2012, we invited alumni to nominate and vote on the selections they thought most worthy of inclusion for another 50 stories. The result is this compilation of 100 stories.

To view the entire list of acknowledgements for 100 Great Stories, click here.  

World War I
World War I
1915

World War I

Carl Ackerman ’13
Ackerman, among the earliest graduates of the Journalism School and in later years the dean who transformed the school into a graduate institution, reported extensively from Berlin and London for United Press on the grueling grind of the Great War.
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1
The Russian Revolution
The Russian Revolution
1917

The Russian Revolution

George Sokolsky ’58
Sokolsky would later become a prominent foe of communism, but in early 1917 he was expelled from the Journalism School for socialist activism and did not receive his degree for 40 years. Unfazed, Sokolsky went to Moscow to cover the Russian Revolution...
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2
The Sunday Times
The Sunday Times
1923

The Sunday Times

Lester Markel ’14
In more than 40 years as Sunday editor of the New York Times, beginning in 1923, Markel created the Week in Review section, influenced the paper’s coverage of countless issues and shaped one of the great hubs of American discourse, the Sunday issue of the Times.
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3
Modern Art
Modern Art
1929

Modern Art

Emily Genauer ’30
Beginning her career with Joseph Pulitzer’s New York World in 1929, Genauer spent more than four decades championing then-controversial modern artists like Marc Chagall and Diego Rivera, shaping Americans’ perceptions of fine art, and resisting editorial pressure to ignore leftist...
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4
The Great Depression
The Great Depression
1929

The Great Depression

Merryle Stanley Rukeyser ’17
As one of America’s most well-known financial journalists and most popular syndicated columnists, Rukeyser wrote extensively on the Crash of ’29 and the Great Depression, the worst economic catastrophe of the 20th century. He was also the first to teach courses in economic and...
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5
Eleanor Roosevelt
Eleanor Roosevelt
1934

Eleanor Roosevelt

Dorothy Ducas '26
The first woman to receive a Pulitzer Traveling Scholarship, Ducas was with the International News Service when she unforgettably profiled Eleanor Roosevelt’s efforts to expand what first ladies — and women in general — could achieve on the public stage. The mutual admiration...
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6
Lindbergh Kidnapping Trial
Lindbergh Kidnapping Trial
1935

Lindbergh Kidnapping Trial

John Hohenberg ’27
As a young reporter with the New York Evening Journal, Hohenberg covered the controversial “trial of the century” in which Bruno Richard Hauptmann was tried and sentenced to death for the murder of Charles Lindbergh’s son. Hohenberg later returned to the Journalism School, where he...
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7
World War II
World War II
1940

World War II

Otto Tolischus '16
Tolischus won a Pulitzer Prize for his New York Times reporting that chronicled Europe’s descent into World War II, including the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and Germany's invasion of Poland. Expelled from Nazi Germany, he reported from Tokyo until Pearl Harbor, when he was held captive by...
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8
America’s Natural Wonders
America’s Natural Wonders
1941

America’s Natural Wonders

Hal Borland ’23
Born on the plains of Nebraska, Borland wrote about nature with the eye of a reporter and the soul of a poet. In 1941, he began contributing a series of what he termed “outdoor editorials” for the New York Times that captured the profound beauty of America’s natural landscapes and...
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9
D-Day
D-Day
1944

D-Day

A.J. Liebling ’25
One of the most admired journalists of the 20th century, Liebling covered World War II extensively and was with the Allies when they stormed Omaha Beach on D-Day. A recent critic called Liebling’s harrowing and definitive account for the New Yorker a “finished masterpiece of reportage...
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10
Covering Congress
Covering Congress
1945

Covering Congress

Henrietta Poynter ’22
Until Poynter helped found Congressional Quarterly in 1945, small newsrooms and ordinary citizens had few means of researching their legislators’ records. Once CQ became available, information about Congress became democratized and millions of citizens were empowered in unprecedented way...
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11
Creating the Postwar World
Creating the Postwar World
1946

Creating the Postwar World

Peter Kihss ’33
Writing for the New York Herald Tribune before his legendary tenure at the New York Times, Kihss reported extensively on the first years of the United Nations, beginning with the search for a headquarters and proceeding to the founding of Israel and the high-stakes...
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12
Fighting Jim Crow
Fighting Jim Crow
1946

Fighting Jim Crow

Hodding Carter
After spending a formative year at the Journalism School, Carter left before graduating to begin a remarkable career in which he earned the moniker “Spokesman of the New South” for his eloquent opposition to Jim Crow laws. He won a Pulitzer Prize for writing against racial...
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13
The Korean War
The Korean War
1950

The Korean War

Marguerite Higgins ’42
Higgins, who had stunned her male classmates by winning the coveted position of campus correspondent for the New York Herald Tribune, became the first woman to win a Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting for her hard-hitting front-line coverage of the Korean War. She was named...
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14
Uprisings in the USSR
Uprisings in the USSR
1956

Uprisings in the USSR

Flora Lewis ’42
In an era when accounts of the Soviet Union were often tainted by ideology, Lewis reported fearlessly for the New York Times on mass unrest in Hungary and Poland as citizens protested Soviet domination and were brutally suppressed.
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The Civil Rights Movement
The Civil Rights Movement
1957

The Civil Rights Movement

Benjamin Fine '32
Fine was in Arkansas to report for the New York Times on the integration of the Little Rock Nine to all-white Central High School. Facing howling mobs of segregationists on a daily basis, Fine was battered black and blue, but it didn’t stop him from getting the story. 
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16
Sputnik
Sputnik
1957

Sputnik

William Jorden '48
As head of the New York Times’ Moscow bureau, Jorden was in Russia when the Sputnik launch shocked the world, and he became one of America’s most influential journalists covering the Cold War. He and his team won the Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting in 1958. Later, Jorden...
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17
The Slums of New York City
The Slums of New York City
1959

The Slums of New York City

Woody Klein '52
Klein went undercover to investigate the appalling conditions in slum housing in some of the city’s poorest areas. His award-winning 11-part series and a subsequent book helped spur reform efforts in City Hall and beyond. 
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Integrating New Orleans
Integrating New Orleans
1960

Integrating New Orleans

David Zinman '52
Reporting for the Associated Press, Zinman vividly portrayed the courage and conviction of two white families who sent their children to the first New Orleans school to be integrated, despite the rage of other whites engaged in a racial boycott.
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Journalism, Reviewed
Journalism, Reviewed
1961

Journalism, Reviewed

James Boylan ’51
Boylan helped launch a great tradition of deep reporting on journalism and the industry when he co-founded Columbia Journalism Review, which has offered crucial insights for more than five decades. Boylan served as the magazine’s first managing editor...
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20
Vietnam
Vietnam
1962

Vietnam

Beverly Deepe Keever ’58
Deepe arrived in Vietnam as a freelance reporter in 1962 and remained for seven continuous years, becoming the longest-serving Western journalist to cover the war. In 1969, the Christian Science Monitor submitted her work for the Pulitzer Prize in International Reporting.
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21
The Movies as Art
The Movies as Art
1963

The Movies as Art

Judith Crist ’45
Beginning at the New York Herald Tribune in 1963, and serving for decades as one of America’s pre-eminent film critics, Crist offered hard-hitting film criticism that explored the medium with the care and respect afforded to other art forms. Crist taught at the Journalism School for more...
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22
China’s Cultural Revolution
China’s Cultural Revolution
1966

China’s Cultural Revolution

Robert Elegant ’51
Elegant, who covered East Asia and served as Hong Kong bureau chief for Newsweek and the Los Angeles Times, gave Western readers a detailed and comprehensive look at how Mao Tse-tung’s brutal Cultural Revolution changed China in his book Mao’s Great Revolution.
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23
The Globalization of Crime
The Globalization of Crime
1966

The Globalization of Crime

Monroe Karmin '53
Karmin won a Pulitzer Prize for reporting — at great risk to himself and co-author Stanley Penn — in the Wall Street Journal on the links between American organized crime and gambling in the Bahamas, a pioneering report on the globalization of crime. Karmin later became president of...
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24
Life in the Ghetto
Life in the Ghetto
1968

Life in the Ghetto

Joe Saltzman '62
In the aftermath of the Watts riots, Saltzman produced a groundbreaking documentary, "Black on Black," for CBS, capturing the diverse voices and perspectives of African-Americans in Los Angeles. Among other honors, the film received the Edward R. Murrow Award...
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25
Life on the Field
Life on the Field
1968

Life on the Field

Dick Schaap ’56
Later to become a beloved sports broadcaster, Schaap virtually created the sports autobiography when he collaborated with Jerry Kramer on Instant Replay, one of the best books ever written about football. “The words may not be exactly theirs,” Schaap said of the players he worked with...
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26
The Moon Landing
The Moon Landing
1969

The Moon Landing

John Noble Wilford (Ford Fellow) ’62
Several years after his time at the Journalism School with a Ford Foundation fellowship, Wilford got the entire front page of the New York Times to himself on July 21, 1969, for his report on Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin’s historic walk on the moon. Wilford later won two Pulitzer...
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27
South African Apartheid
South African Apartheid
1970

South African Apartheid

Jim Hoagland ’69
Hoagland won an International Reporting Pulitzer for his penetrating work about South Africa’s struggle against apartheid, published in the Washington Post.  He went on to receive a second Pulitzer, for commentary, in 1991. 
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28
Weathermen Terrorism
Weathermen Terrorism
1971

Weathermen Terrorism

Mel Gussow '56
Perhaps best known for his arts criticism and conversations with great playwrights, Gussow also wrote the definitive account, for New York magazine, of the 1970 Weathermen town house explosion in Greenwich Village that symbolized the loss of innocence of the 1960s...
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29
Watergate
Watergate
1972

Watergate

Howard Simons ’52
As managing editor of the Washington Post, Simons received the first phone call about the Watergate break-in, coined the name “Deep Throat” for the informant later revealed as FBI official W. Mark Felt and played a key role overseeing the investigation...
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30
Exposing COINTELPRO
Exposing COINTELPRO
1973

Exposing COINTELPRO

Carl Stern '59
As a reporter for NBC News, Stern made groundbreaking use of the Freedom of Information Act to uncover the FBI’s secret counterintelligence programs to harass and “neutralize” organizations and individuals whose political activities it deemed unwelcome. His Peabody...
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31
The Power Broker
The Power Broker
1974

The Power Broker

Robert Caro (Carnegie Fellow) ’68
Caro, who spent a year at the Journalism School as a Carnegie Fellow, wrote "The Power Broker," a Pulitzer Prize-winning account of Robert Moses and the making of modern New York City, based on years of intensive research. It was selected by the Modern Library...
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32
The Last Flight from Da Nang
The Last Flight from Da Nang
1975

The Last Flight from Da Nang

Bruce Dunning '63
Dunning produced an unforgettable CBS Evening News segment about the chaotic last Western flight out of Da Nang, Vietnam, when a plane intended for women and children refugees was stormed by South Vietnamese soldiers desperate to escape. 
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The Modern Political Talk Show
The Modern Political Talk Show
1978

The Modern Political Talk Show

Patrick J. Buchanan ’62
After a stint writing editorials for the St. Louis Globe-Democrat and several years working in the White House, Buchanan joined liberal commentator Tom Braden to pioneer the debate-driven modern political talk show, initially on Washington radio and then as founding co-hosts of CNN’s...
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34
Mount St. Helens
Mount St. Helens
1980

Mount St. Helens

Rick Seifert '69
Seifert visited and reported on the area surrounding Mount St. Helens in the ominous days just before its eruption killed dozens of people and devastated hundreds of miles of Washington State. Seifert's haunting portrait of a small mountain community on the verge of disaster contributed...
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35
Famine in Africa
Famine in Africa
1984

Famine in Africa

Josh Friedman '68
Friedman, fellow reporter Dennis Bell, and photographer Ozier Muhammad of Newsday sparked an international outcry and won an International Reporting Pulitzer Prize in 1985 for their eye-opening reports on widespread hunger in Africa. 
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36
The Last Years of Josef Mengele
The Last Years of Josef Mengele
1985

The Last Years of Josef Mengele

Ralph Blumenthal '64
After years of intrepid reporting on the hunt for Nazi war criminals amid the intrigue of the Cold War, Blumenthal traveled to Brazil for the New York Times to confirm the death of Auschwitz “Angel of Death” Josef Mengele and reconstruct his last...
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37
The Marcos Regime
The Marcos Regime
1985

The Marcos Regime

Lewis M. Simons ’64
Simons shared a Pulitzer Prize in International Reporting for indelible reporting in the San Jose Mercury News on the corruption of the Marcos regime in the Philippines. Bombshell revelations that Marcos was looting the country helped catalyze the People Power movement...
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38
South Africa in Black and White
South Africa in Black and White
1985

South Africa in Black and White

Joseph Lelyveld ’60
Lelyveld won a Pulitzer Prize for his book "Move Your Shadow: South Africa, Black and White," a moving portrait of how apartheid shaped South Africa and the lives of its legally unequal populations.
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39
The Iran-Contra Scandal
The Iran-Contra Scandal
1986

The Iran-Contra Scandal

Andres Oppenheimer '78
Oppenheimer and colleagues at the Miami Herald sparked a global conversation on American executive power and arms deals with their Pulitzer Prize-winning uncovering of the scandal in which members of the Reagan administration, in secret defiance of Congress, sold arms to...
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40
Christmas in Vietnam
Christmas in Vietnam
1987

Christmas in Vietnam

James Lubetkin ’66
Many years after spending a Christmas serving in Vietnam, James Lubetkin contributed a thoughtful commentary to the Christian Science Monitor reflecting on a peaceful night during wartime and the violent conflicts that afflict humanity year after year. 
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41
The Secret Government
The Secret Government
1987

The Secret Government

Joan Konner ’61
Konner (later to become dean of the Journalism School) produced a Bill Moyers documentary for PBS, The Secret Government: The Constitution in Crisis, which chillingly detailed the operations and power of a secret federal network that pursues...
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42
Modern Presidential Campaign
Modern Presidential Campaign
1988

Modern Presidential Campaign

Richard Ben Cramer ’70
Cramer wrote the definitive account of how presidential campaigns are waged and won in his classic "What It Takes," a panoramic chronicle of the 1988 presidential primaries and election based on interviews with more than a thousand people.
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43
Tragedy in Tiananmen Square
Tragedy in Tiananmen Square
1989

Tragedy in Tiananmen Square

Tom Bettag ’67
As executive producer of the CBS Evening News, Bettag oversaw the network’s memorable coverage of demonstrators gathering in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square to demand democratic reforms, and the brutal government crackdown...
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44
Scandal in India
Scandal in India
1989

Scandal in India

N. Ram ’68
N. Ram, former editor-in-chief of The Hindu, was instrumental in breaking the Bofors scandal, a bombshell story about corruption in military spending that changed the course of Indian politics.
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45
Covering the News Media
Covering the News Media
1990

Covering the News Media

Howard Kurtz '75
In his columns and on television, media critic Kurtz has extensively covered the evolution of the media landscape from the dawn of the mass Internet age through the dramatic transformations that continue today. 
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46
The Voices of Women in Asia
The Voices of Women in Asia
1990

The Voices of Women in Asia

Elisabeth Bumiller ’79
Bumiller advanced global understanding of the experiences of South Asian and Japanese women — and provided a safe space for them to share their voices — in her unforgettable books May You Be the Mother of a Hundred Sons: A Journey Among the Women of India and...
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47
Subway Lives
Subway Lives
1991

Subway Lives

Jim Dwyer '80
Dwyer offered an intimate look at the human faces behind and within America’s most famous mass transit system in his Newsday columns, later expanded into a book, Subway Lives: 24 Hours in the Life of the New York Subways. He went on to share a 1992 Spot News reporting Pulitzer Prize...
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48
Fall of the USSR
Fall of the USSR
1991

Fall of the USSR

Stuart Loory ’58 and Ann Imse ’76
In "Seven Days That Shook the World: The Collapse of Soviet Communism," Stuart Loory of CNN and Moscow correspondent Ann Imse of the Associated Press drew upon their own reporting and extensive coverage by their American...
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49
Guns in America
Guns in America
1994

Guns in America

Erik Larson ’78
Larson explored America’s controversial debate regarding the right to bear arms in Lethal Passage: The Story of a Gun, which traces a single gun from manufacturer to distributor to the hands of a troubled teenager who carried out a tragic school shooting.
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50
The Working Poor
The Working Poor
1994

The Working Poor

Tony Horwitz ’83
Horwitz won a Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting for his investigations into the working conditions faced by many low-income Americans. His memorable coverage was published in the Wall Street Journal.
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51
Living Deaf
Living Deaf
1994

Living Deaf

Leah Hager Cohen ’91
In her book Train Go Sorry: Inside a Deaf World, Cohen sensitively portrayed the experiences and challenges of students at a New York City school for the deaf, as well as the difficult challenges of bridging the deaf and hearing worlds, and the civil rights movement of the deaf community....
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52
The Lives of Muslim Women
The Lives of Muslim Women
1995

The Lives of Muslim Women

Geraldine Brooks ’83
Brooks raised public awareness of the diverse experiences and perspectives of Muslim women in her revealing book, "Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Muslim Women."
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53
Journalism’s Digital Future
Journalism’s Digital Future
1995

Journalism’s Digital Future

Josh Quittner ’86
Long a renowned chronicler of the digital revolution in news and communication, Quittner was among the earliest and most influential reporters to explore how the Internet would transform journalism.
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54
The Color of Water
The Color of Water
1996

The Color of Water

James McBride ’80
In his best-selling book The Color of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute to his White Mother, McBride revealed the fascinating story of his mother, a white Orthodox Jewish immigrant from Eastern Europe who encountered adversity and racism and was disowned by her family after she married a...
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55
Race and the Drug War
Race and the Drug War
1996

Race and the Drug War

Reginald Stuart '71
In an article published in Emerge magazine, Stuart exposed the lengthy mandatory sentence of 24 ½ years imposed on Kemba Smith, a black college student with no criminal record for a drug conspiracy charge in connection with her abusive boyfriend. Stuart’s reporting helped...
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56
Protecting the Rainforest
Protecting the Rainforest
1997

Protecting the Rainforest

John Quinones ’79
Quinones won an Emmy and introduced audiences to an important voice in the environmental movement with his ABC "Primetime" report on the efforts of biologist Michael Fay to create a national preserve in the rainforests of Congo...
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57
Tuesdays with Morrie
Tuesdays with Morrie
1997

Tuesdays with Morrie

Mitch Albom ’82
Albom inspired millions of readers with his heartwarming account of the wit, wisdom and grace of a great teacher, Morrie Schwartz, in the best-selling "Tuesdays With Morrie."
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58
The Toll of Alcohol Abuse
The Toll of Alcohol Abuse
1999

The Toll of Alcohol Abuse

Eric Newhouse ’72
Newhouse, of Montana’s Great Falls Tribune, won an Explanatory Reporting Pulitzer Prize for his stark series on the damage alcohol abuse causes to individual lives and to society at large, through sensitive reporting on the microcosm of his community.
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59
How Race Is Lived in America
How Race Is Lived in America
2000

How Race Is Lived in America

Mirta Ojito ’01
Ojito, now a professor at the Journalism School, shared a Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting for her contribution to the New York Times series “How Race Is Lived In America,” the haunting story of best friends from Cuba, one black and one white, who drift apart as they lead...
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60
The Threat from Pakistan
The Threat from Pakistan
2000

The Threat from Pakistan

Steve Kroft ’75
Kroft won a duPont-Columbia Award for his 60 Minutes report, “America’s Worst Nightmare?,” which prophetically examined the threat to U.S. and international security from Pakistan’s political instability, ties to Islamic militants...
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61
The Faces of Poverty
The Faces of Poverty
2001

The Faces of Poverty

Manuel Rivera-Ortiz ’98
The global journey of Rivera-Ortiz to document the experience of impoverished people in developing nations has resulted in powerful photography that captures the visceral essence of life in slums around the world.
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62
9/11
9/11
2001

9/11

Tim Townsend ’99
Townsend was a financial reporter just blocks away from the World Trade Center when a plane suddenly struck its north tower. Running outside, he witnessed a second plane hit the south tower and the terrifying collapse of both buildings. In an article for Rolling Stone, Townsend indelibly...
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63
Corporate Scandals on Wall Street
Corporate Scandals on Wall Street
2002

Corporate Scandals on Wall Street

David Wessel ’81 | Laurie Cohen ’82 | Mark Maremont ’83 | Theo Francis ’97 | Julia Angwin ’99
Wessel, Cohen, Maremont, Francis and Angwin shared in a Pulitzer Prize in Explanatory Reporting for a Wall Street Journal series on the roots and impact of several...
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64
The Clergy Sex Abuse Scandal
The Clergy Sex Abuse Scandal
2002

The Clergy Sex Abuse Scandal

Eileen McNamara ’76
McNamara helped expose sexual abuse perpetrated by Catholic clergy over the course of decades, and subsequent efforts to cover up the scandal, in her powerful columns for the Boston Globe.
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65
A Broken Child Welfare System
A Broken Child Welfare System
2003

A Broken Child Welfare System

Barak Goodman '86
Goodman was a producer for a hard-hitting three-part Frontline report on the flaws and failures of America’s child welfare system, based on extraordinary access to Maine’s Department of Human Services and attention to the tragic death of a little girl. The report received a...
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66
Faulty Evidence, Unjust Verdicts
Faulty Evidence, Unjust Verdicts
2003

Faulty Evidence, Unjust Verdicts

Michael Devlin ’77
As news director of KHOU-TV, Devlin shared a duPont-Columbia Award for overseeing a bombshell series of reports that revealed a pattern of faulty DNA test results from the Houston Police Department’s crime lab. The reports spurred an independent audit of the lab, reexamination of...
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67
'On Top of the World'
'On Top of the World'
2003

'On Top of the World'

Andrew C. Revkin ’82
Revkin took his audience on an extraordinary journey to the “pirouetting ice floes” near the North Pole as he reported on an ambitious effort to install climate research equipment at the top of the world. His account ran on the front page of the New York Times and as a multimedia...
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68
Tyranny in Zimbabwe
Tyranny in Zimbabwe
2003

Tyranny in Zimbabwe

Andrew Meldrum ’77
In commentary for the Guardian written shortly after he was expelled from Zimbabwe after 23 years of reporting,  Meldrum reflected on the nation’s tragic journey from hope to despair under the increasingly tyrannical rule of Robert Mugabe. 
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69
Wal-Mart and Globalization
Wal-Mart and Globalization
2003

Wal-Mart and Globalization

Abigail Goldman ’93
Goldman was awarded a National Reporting Pulitzer Prize for a series of stories she co-wrote about how Wal-Mart had become the largest company in the world in an age of globalization, and how its ascent has affected people in America and across the developing world. 
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70
Rwanda and Genocide
Rwanda and Genocide
2004

Rwanda and Genocide

Dele Olojede ’88
Olojede won a Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting for his unforgettable portrait, published in Newsday, of how Rwanda was weaving itself back together a decade after the genocide and mass rape of the Tutsi tribe.
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71
Abu Ghraib
Abu Ghraib
2004

Abu Ghraib

Scott Higham ’85
Higham and colleagues at the Washington Post were nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting for their “relentless, unflinching chronicle” of alleged prisoner abuse perpetrated by American soldiers at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. The story...
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72
The Secret Epidemic
The Secret Epidemic
2004

The Secret Epidemic

Jacob Levenson ’99
In his groundbreaking book The Secret Epidemic: The Story of AIDS and Black America, Levenson delved deeply into the seldom-told stories of HIV-positive African-Americans and explored a diversity of perspectives why black Americans suffer disproportionately from AIDS.
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73
Israel's Withdrawal from Gaza
Israel's Withdrawal from Gaza
2005

Israel's Withdrawal from Gaza

Andrea Stone ’81
On location for USA Today as Israel evicted Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip as part of unilateral disengagement, Stone offered empathetic portraits of the soldiers, settlers, Palestinians and others at a historic moment in the long conflict. 
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74
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina
2005

Hurricane Katrina

Various
Stephanie Stokes ’83, Jim Varney ’89, Michael Keller ’05, Joshua Norman ’05 and colleagues shared a Pulitzer Prize for Public Service in 2006 for their courageous and nuanced coverage of Hurricane Katrina and its disastrous aftermath, during which their newspapers, the Biloxi Sun...
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75
Duke Cunningham and Corruption
Duke Cunningham and Corruption
2005

Duke Cunningham and Corruption

Bruce Bigelow ’79
Bigelow shared in a National Reporting Pulitzer Prize for indefatigable reporting in the San Diego Union-Tribune on bribe-taking by California Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham’s bribe-taking and the infamous napkin “bribe menu” that became a symbol of congressional corruption.
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76
The Human Elvis
The Human Elvis
2005

The Human Elvis

Alanna Nash ’74
In Elvis and The Memphis Mafia, Nash dug beneath decades of mythmaking to piece together an oral history of one of the greatest legends of 20th-century music.
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77
An Imam in America
An Imam in America
2006

An Imam in America

Andrea Elliott ’99
Elliott earned a Feature Writing Pulitzer Prize for her sensitive and insightful portrait in the New York Times of an immigrant imam’s efforts to lead his congregants in an alien nation and adapt to life in America. 
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78
Uncovering the Armenian Genocide
Uncovering the Armenian Genocide
2006

Uncovering the Armenian Genocide

Michael Bobelian ’03
In a fascinating story published in Legal Affairs magazine, Bobelian chronicled a class-action lawsuit spearheaded by an Armenian-American lawyer, Vartkes Yeghiayan, aimed at publicizing the Ottoman government's genocide of Armenians in the early 20th century and securing insurance money...
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79
Tragedy in Darfur
Tragedy in Darfur
2006

Tragedy in Darfur

Lydia Polgreen ’00
Polgreen won a George Polk Prize for Foreign Reporting for her empathetic and groundbreaking reporting in the New York Times on the human toll of the conflict in Darfur.
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80
The Great Recession
The Great Recession
2007

The Great Recession

David Cho ’97
Cho won the Best of Knight-Bagehot Business Journalism Award for his lucid and far-ranging coverage in the Washington Post of the credit crisis that led to one of the worst economic disasters since the Great Depression.
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81
Capital Punishment
Capital Punishment
2007

Capital Punishment

Timothy O’Leary ’82
In a provocative commentary for KERA, the NPR affiliate in Dallas-Fort Worth, O’Leary weighed the morality of the death penalty and argued that Texas’ reputation for capital punishment has made the state an international pariah. 
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82
Sports and Coronary Health
Sports and Coronary Health
2007

Sports and Coronary Health

David Epstein ’04
Reporting for Sports Illustrated, Epstein delved into hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, an often undetected genetic disease that is the most common cause of death for young athletes, to investigate what could be done to save their lives. 
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83
Remaking the Democratic Party
Remaking the Democratic Party
2007

Remaking the Democratic Party

Matt Bai ’94
In his acclaimed book The Argument: Inside the Battle to Remake Democratic Politics, Bai crafted an in-depth portrait of a diverse group of bloggers, activists and party leaders contending for the future of the Democratic Party and building the first political movement of the Internet age...
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The Obama Election
The Obama Election
2008

The Obama Election

Suzanne Malveaux ’91
Offering insightful and enterprising coverage on CNN, Malveaux played an important role in chronicling the 2008 election of the nation’s first African-American president.
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Recycling Abuse
Recycling Abuse
2008

Recycling Abuse

Solly Granatstein ’94
Granatstein produced Scott Pelley’s 60 Minutes investigation of U.S. recycling companies that illegally ship old computer equipment to China, where poor villagers dismantle it for valuable but highly toxic components. The report won numerous awards, including an Emmy and the George Polk...
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Af-Pak Escalation
Af-Pak Escalation
2008

Af-Pak Escalation

C.J. Chivers ’95
Chivers shared a Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting with other New York Times reporters for their comprehensive and courageous coverage of America’s deepening tactical and political engagement in Afghanistan and Pakistan and the numerous eruptions...
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Modern Iran
Modern Iran
2008

Modern Iran

Kelly Golnoush Niknejad ’05
M.A.’06
Editor-in-chief Niknejad founded the online outlet Tehran Bureau in 2008 to provide serious independent journalism about Iran and its influence on the Muslim world. Now partnering with PBS’s Frontline, Tehran Bureau...
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Faces of Iranian Protest
Faces of Iranian Protest
2009

Faces of Iranian Protest

Borzou Daragahi ’94
Writing in the Los Angeles Times, Daragahi crafted evocative portraits of the fragile and remarkable human lives behind the protests of Iran’s Green Movement. His work was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting. 
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An Overstretched Justice System
An Overstretched Justice System
2009

An Overstretched Justice System

Ailsa Chang ’08
Chang won the Daniel Schorr Journalism Prize for her incisive coverage on NPR’s "All Things Considered" of how a broken public defenders system sometimes leads to incarceration of innocent defendants.
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Pete Rose's Corked Bat
Pete Rose's Corked Bat
2010

Pete Rose's Corked Bat

Barry Petchesky ’07
In a widely discussed story for Deadspin, Petchesky revealed damning evidence that, against regulations and despite years of denials, baseball icon Pete Rose corked a baseball bat that was subsequently acquired by a collector. 
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Immigrants in America
Immigrants in America
2010

Immigrants in America

Franz Strasser ’09
Strasser used his international perspective for Into America, a perceptive series of Web reports for BBC News that investigated various facets of immigrants’ experience in America. 
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The Wreck of the Lady Mary
The Wreck of the Lady Mary
2010

The Wreck of the Lady Mary

Amy Ellis Nutt ’95
Nutt won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing for superlative reporting in the Newark Star-Ledger on the mysterious sinking of a fishing boat that took six lives off the coast of New Jersey. 
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Big Banks in the Post-Bailout Era
Big Banks in the Post-Bailout Era
2010

Big Banks in the Post-Bailout Era

Louise Story ’05
In a series for the New York Times, Story reported on the privileges big banks have over their clients and the conflicts of interest in investment banking, raising questions about the practices and public obligations of banks in the post-bailout era. 
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Revolution in Egypt
Revolution in Egypt
2011

Revolution in Egypt

Rawya Rageh ’06
Reporting for Al Jazeera English on air and on Twitter, Rageh was in Cairo’s Tahrir Square for the dramatic protests that toppled Hosni Mubarak and marked the historic bloom of the Arab Spring.
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Disaster in Japan
Disaster in Japan
2011

Disaster in Japan

Yuka Hayashi '91 | Rob Schmitz ’01 | Jonathan Soble ’01 | Enrique Acevedo Quintana ’06 | Lam Thuy Vo ’08 | Yoree Koh '09 | Lim Wui Liang ’10
A 9.0 earthquake and subsequent tsunami and nuclear meltdown in 2011 subjected Japan to one of the biggest disasters ever. Many Columbia journalists played significant roles...
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The Struggle for India's Future
The Struggle for India's Future
2011

The Struggle for India's Future

Vinod K. Jose MA ’08
Writing in India’s journal The Caravan, Jose crafted an extensive profile of Manmohan Singh, revealing how the lofty hopes for his tenure as India's prime minister have foundered in the face of corruption and scandal. 
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A Pilgrimage to Mecca
A Pilgrimage to Mecca
2011

A Pilgrimage to Mecca

Rubaina Azhar ’96
Writing in the Los Angeles Times, Azhar chronicled her first journey to Mecca and reflected on how the hajj affected and illuminated her Muslim faith and identity. 
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Surviving Catastrophe in Turkey
Surviving Catastrophe in Turkey
2011

Surviving Catastrophe in Turkey

Mimi Wells ’11
Writing in the New York Times, Wells eloquently portrayed the strength and dignity of a large Turkish family living day-by-day in a tent after a massive earthquake rendered buildings across their city dangerously prone to collapse.  
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Tracking a Mysterious Disease
Tracking a Mysterious Disease
2012

Tracking a Mysterious Disease

Sasha Chavkin M.A.
Stabile ’10
Working with the Center for Public Integrity and using new opportunities like Kickstarter to help fund his research, Chavkin has traveled the globe reporting on a mysterious chronic kidney disease killing thousands of impoverished agricultural workers.
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