WSJ wins Pulitzer for national reporting on payoff coverage

The Wall Street Journal won a Pulitzer Prize on Monday in national reporting for its investigation that uncovered secret payoffs and a botched cover-up that placed Donald Trump in the middle of a criminal scheme to silence a porn star and a Playboy model who allegedly had sex with him.

It is the first Pulitzer for the Journal since 2015 when it won an Investigative Prize for exposing Medicare fraud.

In addition, The New York Times team of David Barstow, Susanne Craig and Russ Buettner won a Pulitzer for its coverage of President Donald Trump’s finances that debunked his claims of self-made wealth and revealed a business empire riddled with tax dodges.

The Times as also a finalist in national reporting, along with The Guardian/Observer, for its reporting on how Facebook and other tech firms allowed the spread of misinformation and failed to protect consumer privacy, leading to Cambridge Analytica’s theft of 50 million people’s private information, data that was used to boost Donald Trump’s campaign.

Last year, the only Pulitzer winner that was business journalism related was the work of New York Times media reporter Emily Steel on Fox News anchor Bill O’Reilly’s sexual harassment, which was listed as part of the Times’ win in the public service category.

The two main reporters on the work listed — Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor — are not business news desk reporters, though their work was on workplace sexual harassment. Some would argue that work constitutes business journalism.

There were two business journalism-related winners in 2017.