Today, the Pulitzer Prize board announced the winners of its 2017 awards honoring excellence in journalistic and creative endeavors, and though the belligerent potato currently stinking up the White House probably won’t appreciate it, three of the winners happen to be from one of his favorite targets: the so-called “failing” New York Times. The paper’s staff won the award for International Reporting, C.J. Chivers won for Feature Writing, and photographer Daniel Berehulak won for Breaking News Photography.
In a fun peek behind the curtain, though, it looks like the New York Times may have been tipped off about its win before the Pulitzer people had even made any announcements. As reported by the Associated Press, the New York Times Facebook page shared a post earlier today promoting an upcoming Facebook Live event during which “The Times’ recently announced 2017 winners” would talk about how it feels to get a Pulitzer Prize—even though the winners hadn’t been named yet. In a statement, Times spokesperson Eileen Murphy wouldn’t admit if the paper knew about the winners ahead of time, but she called the post “a mistake, combined with a little bit of hopeful thinking.”
Other winners include The New York Daily News, ProPublica, David A. Fahrenthold of The Washington Post, Peggy Noonan of The Wall Street Journal, Hilton Als of The New Yorker, fiction writer Colson Whitehead, and poet Tyehimba Jess. You can see the full list of winners—along with a little blurb about what they did to deserve their Pulitzer—at this link.