By MORNING WOOD Daily Planet Slave
The Santa Monica Daily Planet has been awarded the Pulitzer Prize for an article detailing the covert connection between Al Qaida terrorists, ousted Iraq leader Saddam Hussein, the local ruling party Santa Monicans Everywhere are Always Right and fluoridated water.
It took a team of 25 embedded reporters more than six years to ferret out the illicit relationship, which for years had escaped all the major news outlets in the United States — and the rest of the world.
“It was worth it,” said Daily Planet editor Sacka Something. “It’s like I always say — quality over quantity. Plus, we’re a start-up and we needed to make a name for ourselves. Money wasn’t an issue.”
“It was worth it. It’s like I always say — quality over quantity. Plus, we’re a start-up and we needed to make a name for ourselves. Money wasn’t an issue.” — — SACKA SOMETHING Daily Planet editor
Working out of bureaus in Washington, D.C., Baghdad, Kabul and on The Third Street Promenade, the team of Daily Planet reporters pieced together what was described as a “dumbfounding network of payoffs, camouflage and corruption that threatened to euthanize democracy.”
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Pulitzer judge Eywerk Fortimewarner. “They tried to disqualify the Daily Planet. They said the Daily Planet wasn’t a ‘real paper.’ Well I’ll tell you what — this may be the finest example of reporting in the modern world, other than Oprah Magazine.”
Meanwhile, shots rang out in the Pico neighborhood. This is the first Pulitzer Prize for the fledgling paper, which is one of the few independently owned daily newspapers in the country. Previously, it had been nominated for its “earth-shattering” coverage of the local school district finances, and its “groundbreaking expose” of items on the consent agenda of meetings of the Santa Monica City Council.
The Daily Planet also was a runner up in the category of flawless production, for putting out a paper dvoid of any typos each dy.
“We get calls, e-mails, faxes from our readers all the time,” Daily Planet editors said. “People are just amazed at how mistake-free our paper is. They’ve never seen anything like it.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on April 1, 2004. Read the original PDF.