The Pulitzer Prize is journalism’s most prestigious award. Yesterday, the Pulitzer committee announced that our local paper, the Baltimore Sun, won the 2020 Pulitzer for Local Reporting. Its series of reports on the Healthy Holly scandal, which began in March of 2019, were described by the Pulitzer judges as “illuminating and insightful.” The Sun’s reporting led to the conviction and upcoming imprisonment of former Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh, and to some significant anti-corruption legislative reforms.
Tom's first guest today is one of the reporters on the Sun team. Luke Broadwater, who currently serves as the paper's State House reporter, broke the story about former Mayor Catherine Pugh’s financial relationship with the Board of Directors of the University of Maryland Medical System, and similar relationships the board had with other members.
Broadwater describes the Sun staff's reactions to the Pulitzer -- the paper's first in 17 years -- and how it reinforces the value of local investigative reporting at a time when newsrooms like the Sun's face uncertain futures.
