Tribune celebrates winning Pulitzer Prize

The Tribune won a Pulitzer Prize, the most prestigious award in journalism, for a five-part series that exposed how police protection suffered as Sheriff Joe Arpaio focused on efforts to combat illegal immigration.

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2009 Pulitzer Prize winners

The series was the co-winner of the Pulitzer Prize for local reporting.

Tribune reporter Ryan Gabrielson and former Tribune reporter Paul Giblin produced the five-part series “Reasonable Doubt,” which exposed slow emergency response times and lax criminal enforcement as the sheriff dedicated more of his agency’s time and resources to seeking out and arresting illegal immigrants.

“This is about the only word to describe it — unbelievable,” Gabrielson said in the Tribune newsroom a few minutes after the prizes were announced Monday.

“This award is for the entire East Valley Tribune, all of the newsroom staff that did so much work that allowed us the time to do this investigation,” Gabrielson said, adding the project took about six months to complete.

The Pulitzer committee praised Gabrielson and Giblin for “their adroit use of limited resources to reveal, in print and online, how a popular sheriff’s focus on immigration enforcement endangered investigation of violent crimes and other aspects of public safety.”

The series was published in July.

The Tribune shares the prize with the Detroit Free Press, which was honored for its reporting that uncovered a pattern of lies by Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick that included denial of a sexual relationship that prompted a perjury investigation.

Giblin, now a senior political editor and co-founder of The Arizona Guardian, a Web site that covers state government and politics, said he was stunned at getting the news while he was covering an immigration hearing in Phoenix.

“It’s something I never even allowed myself to think about,” Giblin said of winning a Pulitzer. “I never thought it was possible.”

Like Gabrielson, Giblin said much of the credit goes to Patti Epler, former Tribune metro editor who oversaw the project.

Executive Editor Chris Coppola, who was managing editor at the time the series was produced, said: “This series by Ryan and Paul was the result of an exhaustive examination of public records and interviews with numerous sources, including many within the sheriff’s office, to shed more light on an issue of growing importance both nationally and right here in our communities. It’s gratifying that the Pulitzer judges recognized that effort with this honor.

“I know many of our readers appreciated what this series brought to light, while others were critical of our reporting, but in the end, the Tribune helped engage more people within our community on the topic,” Coppola said.

Jim Ripley, who was executive editor when the series was published and has since retired from the paper, said:

“I am gratified beyond measure. Over the last year, the newsroom was hit by one shock wave after another amid a crumbling economy and new competitive media forces. And yet through it all, our journalists never ever let up in keeping their focus on local, watchdog journalism. Now, the whole country knows what was done here and what is done here.”

Julie Moreno, publisher of the Tribune, said the Pulitzer Prize is a recognition of the newspaper’s commitment to quality journalism and its readers.

“It’s just an incredible testament to the work that was done on that story, and it’s nice to see our journalism being recognized in such a prestigious way,” Moreno said. “It does speak to the commitment we have to serving the readers in our community with quality journalism.”

The honor marks the fourth time a media organization has won the Pulitzer in Arizona, and only the second time the prize was awarded for reporting. The Arizona Daily Star won the award in 1981 for stories on recruiting violations involving the University of Arizona. The Arizona Republic won twice for editorial cartoons in 1951 and 1993.