Celebrating the news, an exuberant San Diego Union-Tribune editor Karin E. Winner shares the news that the newspaper has won a Pulitzer Prize with chairman and publisher David Copley (right) and senior editor special sections Chris Lavin.
The staffs of The San Diego Union-Tribune and Copley News Service have won the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for national reporting.
CNS and the Union-Tribune shared the honor with James Risen and Eric Lichtblau of the New York Times, the Pulitzer Prize board announced Monday in New York.
The committee honored the CNS and Union-Tribune staffs for breaking the story exposing the corruption of former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham. Cunningham eventually pleaded guilty to federal charges and was sentenced to eight and a half years in prison.
“We did it!” Union-Tribune Editor Karin E. Winner exclaimed to dozens of the paper's staffers, who had assembled in the paper's newsroom on hearing the news.
“I am just so proud of this great group of people.”
Winner was in an editorial board meeting with chairman and publisher David C. Copley when she got word of the award. She and Copley rushed downstairs and were greeted with applause.
“Prizes aren't everything,” she said, after exchanging hugs with some of the story's key players. “They're not why we got into this business. But when they honor and they respect great work, it's just fabulous.”
Winner also thanked Copley, who she said “stood behind us every step of this story,” even though the newspaper and its predecessors had long endorsed Cunningham.
“I wish his mother were here because she'd be so proud of us, of him,” Winner said, referring to the late Union-Tribune publisher, Helen C. Copley.
Cunningham's corruption was first exposed June 12 by a story by CNS staff writer Marcus Stern that revealed Cunningham's questionable real estate dealings with military contractor Mitchell Wade. The story reported that Wade bought Cunningham's Del Mar area house for $1.6 million only to sell it for a $700,000 loss.
A follow-up report five days later revealed that Cunningham had been living aboard a yacht owned by Wade.
Three weeks later, spurred by Stern's stories, federal agents searched Cunningham's home in Rancho Santa Fe and the Washington offices of Wade's defense contracting firm, MZM.
On July 14, Cunningham announced that he would not seek re-election to a ninth term representing the 50th Congressional District.
On Nov. 28, Cunningham reached a plea bargain with the U.S. Attorney's office. In it, he pleaded guilty to conspiracy and tax evasion. As part of the deal, he admitted to taking more than $2.4 million in bribes. He also resigned from office.
On March 3, he was sentenced to eight years and four months in federal prison.
The San Diego Evening Tribune won a Pulitzer in 1979 for its coverage of the crash of a PSA airliner over North Park. The Evening Tribune's Jonathan Freedman won one in 1987 for his editorial writing.
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