The Post gets a Pulitzer — and a court win
In a matter of hours on Monday, The Washington Post received the 2026 Pulitzer Prize for public service — thanks in part to reporter Hannah Natanson’s work — and won a critical victory in its fight against the FBI’s seizure of Natanson’s devices.It was, a longtime staffer told me, the best day at the Post in quite some time.
“Another message of today is: The Washington Post is not going anywhere,” executive editor Matt Murray told an emotional newsroom during his congratulatory speech.
The Post’s financial woes and self-inflicted wounds have been chronicled at length, including here. Murray acknowledged the outside scrutiny of the Post’s “difficult stretch” in his remarks. “But today should be a reminder of all that is here and of why we are doing that work, why the Post needs to be a thriving institution,” he said.
The Post edged out two finalists, the Chicago Tribune and the Wall Street Journal, for the public service prize, which is presented to the entire newsroom but was specifically for stories about President Trump’s overhaul of the federal workforce.
Natanson “chronicled how federal workers’ lives were upended” with the help of more than 1,000 sources — and those contacts may have been put at risk when the FBI raided her home and seized her devices in January. The government justified the extraordinary raid by citing a leak investigation.
While the Post editors and reporters were celebrating the Pulitzer, they learned of a favorable court ruling: “The Justice Department will remain blocked” from examining Natanson’s devices, “a federal judge in Virginia ruled Monday,” the Post’s Perry Stein and Aaron Schaffer wrote.
This is the second time the court has “rejected” the DOJ’s efforts to sift through the phone and computers, they added.
In his speech, Murray spoke passionately about the Natanson case. “With her devices in the government’s hands, Hannah’s reporting has been hampered,” he said. “Her sources are uneasy. A chilling effect has occurred — caused directly by an unprecedented action that is among the most aggressive moves against a journalist that we have ever seen in this country.” “This matters deeply and personally to Hannah,” Murray said. “She lost not just reporting materials but personal ones — including, as many of you know, her wedding plans. The violation is real, the burden is real, and The Washington Post stands with Hannah completely and without reservation.” “But this case is about more than Hannah,” he continued. “If the government prevails, we will have crossed a threshold. A precedent will have been set that allows the government to raid a journalist’s private home, seize her materials, and determine for itself — without independent review, without constraint — what it gets to keep and examine. That is a profound threat. Not just to the Post. Not just to Hannah. To every journalist, every source, every person in this country.” Murray expressed gratitude to Natanson, and to her lawyers and the Post lawyers who were in the room, and said, “If the Pulitzer Board’s recognition today helps bring broader awareness to what is at stake — if it casts the importance of this battle into clearer light for the public, for our peers, for policymakers — then I know we are grateful for that too.”
Natanson also addressed the newsroom, and she said, “To every government worker who risked so much to confide in me, I want you to know your trust is the highest honor I will ever receive. We at The Post are doing everything we can to protect it. And I want to thank you. You believe that truth matters in a democracy. You trusted that The Washington Post was the right place to report it. With everything I have, I still believe that, too.” >> Full disclosure: I was on the nominating jury for the public service prize. The deliberation process was confidential. |
What broke through this year |
“The Pulitzer Prize winners are more than a collection of standout stories,” Poynter observed. “They’re an annual signal about what journalism values and what kind of work can break through.” A number of the winners “reflected the fallout from the first year of Donald Trump‘s second term, with the Pulitzer committee recognizing stories and coverage of the administration’s conflicts of interest, the president’s campaigns of retribution, ICE raids and cutbacks to the federal workforce,” Deadline’s Ted Johnson wrote. >> You can spend some time with all the winning work here. >> Julie K. Brown of the Miami Herald received a (long overdue) special citation for her work uncovering Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes. >> “Pablo Torre Finds Out” received the audio reporting prize for “a pioneering and entertaining form of live podcast journalism.” >> The Post’s other Pulitzer win on Monday was for feature photography. Scott Nover recapped the newsroom celebration here. |
Media Matters says it has defeated the FTC |
Media Matters for America says it has scored a “total victory” against the Trump admin. Yesterday, Law360’s Bryan Koenig reports, Media Matters announced a settlement “resolving its retaliation claims against the Federal Trade Commission, securing a promise by the agency ‘to forgo ever reissuing or issuing a substantially similar’ administrative subpoena to the left-leaning watchdog in the search for censorship of conservatives.” |
Visa revocations raise eyebrows at Costa Rica’s top paper |
The US “has revoked the visas of several board executives at La Nación, one of Costa Rica’s leading media outlets, triggering fresh accusations that the U.S. — in conjunction with the allied Costa Rican government — is stripping visas to punish critics and political opponents,” Javier Córdoba reports for The AP. The paper “has long been a thorn in the side of outgoing Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves,” who is leaving office on Friday. Read on… |
CNN’s big California debate |
CNN anchors Kaitlan Collins and Elex Michaelson will be back in debate prep this morning for tonight’s California gubernatorial primary debate. The face-off begins at 6 p.m. PT/9 p.m. ET on CNN. “Ballots have already gone out,” the primary day is on June 2, “and we have no idea who the next governor of California will be,” Michaelson told me at CNN’s Burbank studio last night. “There are realistic scenarios where five or six different people could win, which is what makes this debate so high stakes…” |
🔌 Talking ‘news influencers’ and the new info ecosystem |
Speaking of L.A… This afternoon at the Milken Global Conference, I’ll be interviewing NBC News president of editorial Rebecca Blumenstein, Puck CEO Sarah Personette, Semafor co-founder and CEO Justin Smith, and “Central Air” co-host Josh Barro. The session on “News Influencers, Legacy Media, and the New Information Ecosystem” will be live-streamed here at 1 p.m. PT/4 p.m. ET. |
Today’s new nonfiction releases |
NBC’s Julia Ainsley is out today with “Undue Process: The Inside Story of Trump’s Mass Deportation Program.” She said on “Morning Joe” yesterday that Trump’s deportation “machine” has “really put spectacle over substance.” >> Also new today: Bret Baier’s latest, “The Case for America,” is already #1 on Amazon’s new releases list thanks to the Fox marketing machine. Golf writer Tom Coyne’s “A Course Called Home: Adventures of an Accidental Golf Course Owner” is also high up on the best seller list. |
Paramount Skydance posted first-quarter profit growth “despite shortfalls in the company’s largest business,” traditional TV, “as revenue dips from cable and broadcast were offset by growth in movie and TV production as well as subscriptions to Paramount+,” Variety’s Brian Steinberg reports. >> On the Warner Bros. Discovery front, the company said it has made “significant progress toward closing our acquisition.” CEO David Ellison told analysts that Paramount has “satisfied our U.S. HSR obligations, and there are no statutory impediments remaining,” and that the company continues “to advance through European and other international regulatory approvals, several of which have already been secured.” |
Letterman on CBS: ‘They’re lying weasels’ |
The NYT’s Jason Zinoman spoke with David Letterman about the end of “The Late Show,” and the former host said CBS “dumped” Stephen Colbert because “the people selling the network to Skydance said, ‘Oh no, there’s not going to be any trouble with that guy.’” Asked whether he believes the CBS assertion that it canceled the show for financial reasons, Letterman said, “I’m just going to go on record as saying: They’re lying. Let me just add one other thing, Jason. They’re lying weasels.” A CBS spokesperson reiterated to the NYT that the decision was “unequivocally a financial” one. |
>> Barack Obama opened up to Peter Slevin about his approach to Trump 2.0 – and the “difficult” media environment. (New Yorker) >> “In the wake of The Ankler’s exit from Substack, Status has learned that other top publishers have privately expressed frustration with the platform and weighed possible departures, raising questions about the company’s ability to retrain its most prominent creators,” Oliver Darcy writes. (Status) >> Lachlan Cartwright has a juicy profile of Roger Goodell and his “Hollywood blitz” to make the NFL into a global entertainment empire. Jerry Jones and Robert Kraft make cameos. (VF) >> “Forbes Media has preliminarily agreed to pay $10 million and change its business practices to settle a class action lawsuit filed by plaintiffs who allege its website tracked them across the internet without their consent,” Suzanne Smalley reports. (The Record) >> “Millions of soccer fans in the world’s two most populous nations may not be able to watch the World Cup that starts next month, due to a deadlock over broadcast rights in India and no official decision in China,” Aditya Kalra, Munsif Vengattil and Amlan Chakraborty report. (Reuters) |
OpenAI challenges Musk’s motives |
A Sunday court filing from OpenAI shows that “Elon Musk sought a potential settlement with OpenAI two days before his massive trial against the ChatGPT maker began last week,” CNN’s Hadas Gold reports. In the filing, OpenAI’s attorneys wrote that Musk’s messages prove that his “motivation in pursuing this lawsuit is to attack a competitor and its principals.” Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers “denied the request, telling OpenAI’s attorneys they should have submitted it as evidence during Musk’s testimony,” Gold writes. >> OpenAI president Greg Brockman took the stand yesterday and “was repeatedly asked to reconcile his nearly $30 billion stake with OpenAI’s stated mission of making AI technology to benefit all of humanity,” CNBC’s David Ingram reports. |
A crash-test model for AI |
Clare Duffy writes: Can the independent vehicle-crash testing model help make AI products safer for young people? Common Sense Media is launching the Youth AI Safety Institute with the hope that it will. They’ll stress-test AI tools for youth safety risks, publish consumer-friendly guides for families and develop benchmarks they hope tech companies will adopt. The effort is backed by funding from Anthropic and the OpenAI Foundation, among others, although it will operate independently. And they’ve recruited an expert advisory board that includes the likes of former Apple AI chief John Giannandrea and Stanford Engineering’s computer science chair Mehran Sahami. Read my full story here… |
More of today’s tech talk |
>> The SEC and Elon Musk have agreed to settle a lawsuit over Musk’s Twitter buyout. Musk’s trust will “pay a civil penalty of $1.5 million to the commission.” (CNBC) >> Instagram “is taking a small step toward increasing transparency around AI-generated content on the service” by “testing a new account-level label that will allow creators to self-identify as an ‘AI creator,’” Karissa Bell reports. (Engadget) >> “Image model releases are driving growth for AI mobile apps, generating 6.5 times more downloads than traditional model updates,” Sarah Perez writes. (TechCrunch) |
☝🏼 THR went with the irresistible headline on this one. “After years of legal wrangling, Blake Lively has settled a lawsuit against Justin Baldoni over sexual harassment on the set of ’It Ends With Us,’” Winston Cho wrote. CNN’s Nicki Brown has a full report here… |
Around the entertainment world… |
>> The 2026 Tony Awards nominations were announced this morning. “The Lost Boys” and “Schmigadoon!” lead the pack with 12 nods each. (Deadline) >> Last night was “the loudest Met Gala yet,” Joan Kennedy wrote. (Business of Fashion) >> Today and tomorrow’s Broadway performances of “The Book of Mormon” have been canceled after the theater building suffered damage in a fire. (THR) >> “Dolly Parton has canceled her Las Vegas residency, which had been rescheduled for September, citing her previously reported health issues.” (Variety) >> Netflix’s “Lord of the Flies” is pulling some stellar reviews, averaging 94% on Rotten Tomatoes and 85 on Metacritic. Over at Variety, Alison Herman writes the adaptation “is a harrowing watch with a stellar young cast.” >> Universal Pictures dropped a new official trailer for Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey.” (YouTube) |