President Trump has thrown the gauntlet in his proverbial duel with the Pulitzer Prize Board by accusing them of being “too embarrassed” to respond to his Oct. 3 letter. He penned a scathing message slamming their decision to award the New York Times and The Washington Post staff the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting for their coverage of the “Russia Hoax.”
During Trump’s time in the White House, the mainstream media dogmatically pursued allegations of collusion between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin, a theory that has now been debunked.
“For two years, these institutions feverishly pushed one Russia story after another and – despite lacking any credible evidence – attempted to persuade the public that my campaign had colluded with the Russian government,” his letter to the Pulitzer Prize Board stated.
“Contemporaneously with that reporting, numerous conservative news outlets and commentators questioned the legitimacy of these reports,” he continued, “exposing the clear logical fallacies contained in their narratives and pointing to the clear lack of evidence underpinning them.”
In 2019, Trump tweeted: “So funny that The New York Times & The Washington Post got a Pulitzer Prize for their coverage (100% NEGATIVE and FAKE!) of Collusion with Russia – And there was No Collusion! So, they were either duped or corrupt?”
Since NYT and WaPo received Pulitzer prizes for a series of articles centered around the Russia collusion conspiracy theory, Trump has been exonerated of any charges related to those accusations:
“The indictment [by John Durham] pointedly accuses Mr. Sussman [cybersecurity attorney for Hillary Clinton] of making false statements to the FBI when he presented ‘evidence’ purporting to show secret communications between my organization and the Russia-based Alfa Bank…The indictment reveals, however, that Mr. Sussman was working with other Democrats and billing his time to the Clinton campaign. Importantly, the indictment reinforces the falsehood of the Alfa Bank connection, stating that “the FBI’s investigation revealed that the e-mail server at issue was not owned or operated by the Trump Organization but, rather, had been administered by a mass marketing email company that send advertisements for Trump hotels and hundreds of other clients.”
In light of the legal revelations that have cleared President Trump’s name, the utter sensationalism and seemingly malicious collaboration of megalithic mainstream news outlets appears to have been exposed. Considering this, Trump’s demand that the Pulitzer prizes be rescinded seems completely fair, especially if the reporting done on the Russia conspiracy was based on erroneous and inaccurate information.
The Pulitzer Prize Board appears to be dodging the 45th president’s request. According to Trump, they perhaps “don’t know how” to respond. Trump’s initial letter held no quarter, demanding that the two left-leaning outlets voluntarily surrender their prizes for National Reporting. “However,” he finished, “should they fail to do so, I would expect that you will take the necessary steps to rectify the situation, including stripping the recipients of their prize and retracting the false statements which remain on the Pulitzer website.”
Trump’s statements on the matter seem to significantly weaken the legitimacy and impact of the Pulitzer Prize, which has long been a bastion of honor and esteem in American society. It begs the question: If a Pulitzer Prize has been erroneously issued for fallacious reporting, then what is the worth of receiving anything from the Pulitzer Board, today?
President Trump has an answer: “These Pulitzer Prizes for totally incorrect reporting have become worthless and meaningless.”