National Enquirer accepted into Pulitzer competition
Stories on Edwards affair submitted in investigative, national news categories
Last Updated: Friday, February 19, 2010 | 2:47 PM ET
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Former U.S. presidential candidate John Edwards, seen here with his wife, Elizabeth, in 2007, was the subject of articles in the National Enquirer that have been entered in this year's Pulitzer Prize competition. (Gerry Broome/Associated Press)The administrators of the Pulitzer Prize have conceded that the National Enquirer, the U.S. tabloid known primarily for its celebrity coverage, can now compete with mainstream news media for the prestigious journalism award.
The Enquirer has submitted entries for Pulitzers in two categories: investigative reporting and national news reporting.
The tabloid broke the story about the extramarital affair of former senator and presidential candidate John Edwards and his love child with 2008 presidential campaign videographer Rielle Hunter.
The publication submitted entries for the Pulitzers before the Feb. 1 deadline, but at the time, it was unclear whether it qualified to compete.
The Pulitzer rules say the awards must go to a newspaper or a news site based in the U.S. that publishes no less often than weekly. But the distinction between a weekly newspaper and a magazine can be unclear. American Media, the Enquirer's publisher, has at various times referred to the Enquirer as both a newspaper and a magazine.
Furthermore, the bulk of the Enquirer's reporting on Edwards was done in 2007 and 2008, and the upcoming prize awards stories written in 2009.
On Thursday, the Huffington Post reported that the Pulitzer board decided that the Enquirer is, indeed, a newspaper and that it is eligible for the prizes that will be announced on April 12.
"That persistence, that old-fashioned, shoe-leather reporting that we exhibited on this story … is what the Pulitzer committee recognized," the National Enquirer's executive editor, Barry Levine, told ABC News on Friday.
As well as forcing Edwards to admit to the affair and that he fathered Hunter's child, the Enquirer's revelations led to a federal investigation into whether Edwards's campaign broke any laws by continuing to pay Hunter after she stopped working for the campaign.
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