Joseph Pulitzer and His Prize

The famous Pulitzer Prize, awarded now almost exclusively to leftist journalists, had an interesting history. It is alleged that Joseph Pulitzer was born on April 10, 1847 in Macău (Mako), a village situated on the river Mureș, close to the Hungarian border within the county Timiș of Romania.

When his family moved to Budapest, Joseph attended a private school. When he turned 17, he was declared unfit to serve in the Austrian military service but was able to join the American military service even though he did not speak English. He arrived in Boston in 1864 where he enrolled in some courses, and learned English while working as a waiter and porter. He became an American citizen in 1867 and eventually finalized his law studies.

His first journalistic job was at the German newspaper “Westliche Post” in Missouri, then correspondent at the New York Sun. Using all his savings, he bought the St. Louis Evening Dispatch” in 1878 and merged it with the Evening Post, thus forming the St. Louis-Post Dispatch.

He bought the failing and bankrupt New York World in 1883 and turned it into one of the most successful newspapers in the country with 600,000 subscribers. Pulitzer wrote and published articles about the regime’s corruption and other dubious affairs. Based on his good reputation, Pulitzer was able to raise funds to build the base of the Statue of Liberty.

In 1890, highly stressed, Pulitzer is plagued by many health issues and, at the age of 43, he became almost blind.  He withstood attacks from the political class and many other corrupt newspapers. He fought constantly for freedom of the press.

He donated in 1892 all his savings to the founding of a journalistic school but it was not approved. One year after his death, in 1912, the Columbia Journalism School was formed, and in 1917 the famous Pulitzer prize was awarded for the first time.

Since then, awards are made each April by the president of Columbia University on the recommendation of the Pulitzer Prize board. This board leans highly left, for obvious reasons.

Pulitzer’s last will and testament bestowed $2 million on Columbia to establish a School of Journalism.  One-fourth of this endowment was to be “applied to prizes or scholarships for the encouragement of public service, public morals, American literature, and the advancement of education.”

Joseph Pulitzer wrote: "I am deeply interested in the progress and elevation of journalism, having spent my life in that profession, regarding it as a noble profession and one of unequaled importance for its influence upon the minds and morals of the people. I desire to assist in attracting to this profession young men of character and ability, also to help those already engaged in the profession to acquire the highest moral and intellectual training." https://www.pulitzer.org/page/history-pulitzer-prizes

How low have American morals fallen since the turn of the twentieth century! How low has the quality, intellectual training, morality and character of journalists fallen as well since Pulitzer’s will was written! Academia has become almost entirely leftist and the Pulitzer Prize is often awarded to leftist newspapers, writing and publishing on topics dear to the leftist ideology. The level of censorship of conservative journalists today would certainly shock Joseph Pulitzer, a self-made man.