Financial Journalism Shut out of Pulitzers

No, seriously.  Two sex scandals (Spitzer and Kilpatrick), wildfires, immigration enforcement, OSHA violations . . . but I guess no one was writing anything interesting about finance.  Oh, hell, I have to concede, it was a quiet year for those of us on the finance and economics beat, with no big stories to grab a Pulitzer Committee's eye.  But I feel like they might have thrown us something.

Seriously, though, I have to wonder if this isn't an education problem.  The Pulitzer committee doesn't want to get caught in an embarassing error, implicitly endorsing a theory that turns out to be wrong.  Neglected children are comprehensible, and everyone agrees that they're terrible, so they make great Pulitzer fodder.  Credit default swaps are trickier.  Why take the risk?

This article available online at:

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2009/04/financial-journalism-shut-out-of-pulitzers/16404/