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Friday, March 29
The Indiana Daily Student

opinion

The Pulitzer Prize Awards were well-deserved

The New York Times and the New Yorker recently won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for public service for their reports on sexual harassment allegations against Harvey Weinstein in Hollywood. 

These organizations deserve this award more than anyone else.  

The Pulitzer Prize is the highest honor in journalism and the New York Times and the New Yorker's win this year is extremely well deserved.

The investigations on Weinstein sparked the #MeToo movement, where people stepped forward about their experiences with sexual assault in an unprecedented way. 

Over 100 people came forward to speak out against Weinstein alone.

The New York Times’ team was led by Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey while the New Yorker’s contributions were led by Ronan Farrow. 

The Pulitzer Prize Board said that these journalists received the awards “for explosive, impactful journalism that exposed wealthy and powerful sexual predators including allegations against one of Hollywood’s most influential producers, bringing them to account for long-suppressed allegations of coercion, brutality and victim silencing, thus spurring a worldwide reckoning about sexual abuse of women.”

Kantor and Twohey first reported about Weinstein in the New York Times in October 2017, revealing he had been paying off sexual harassment accusers for decades.

They followed up their investigation in December, joined by Susan Dominus, Jim Rutenberg and Steve Eder, with an examination of the people and systems that enabled Weinstein’s abuse.

Journalists at the New York Times continued their pursuit in exposing the abuses of men in power, following up with investigations about Vice Media, comedian Louis C.K. and restaurateur Ken Friedman.

Farrow’s first piece in the New Yorker, a 7,000 word investigation first disclosing Weinstein’s accusations, was published five days after the New York Times article. 

Farrow went on to reveal additional assault allegations in subsequent articles, along with Weinstein’s use of private investigation firms.  He also exposed money from Weinstein’s settlements came from his brother's, Bob Weinstein's, personal account.

As the son of Mia Farrow and Woody Allen, Ronan Farrow has stated his family background made him understand abuse from an early age.

“You see early in life with that kind of a family background the way in which the most powerful men in America wield power for good and for ill," he said to The Hollywood Reporter.

These investigations led to thousands of people coming forward to talk about their experiences of sexual abuse, bringing down many powerful men whose actions had been covered up for years.

The investigations sparked a change in the way sexual abuse is discussed and paved the way for a future in which powerful people may no longer get away with their terrible actions. 

Kantor, Twohey, and Farrow deserve this honor for pioneering such an important moment in journalism and public service.

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