Monday, October 12, 2009

Nobel Prize is Dyn-o-mite!

The Pulitzer Prize is named after the paper magnate Joseph Pulitzer, the same Mr. Pulitzer whose distortion of facts and properly labeled 'yellow journalism'--the pursuit of ratings over truth--led to the Spanish-American war.  Now his namesake is attached to an award given to journalists who, quite the opposite, have shown the most journalistic integrity in reporting a story.

The same is true with Alfred Nobel, namesake of the Nobel Peace Prize.  He invented dynamite.

Both men left a portion of their estate to award people who did the opposite of what earned them their fortunes. Pulitzer wanted to award journalistic integrity.  Nobel wanted to award those who didn't use dynamite.

Philanthropy is an odd business.



1 comment:

  1. Classic. This should be a page-a-day calendar. These facts are real conversation starters at work!

    ReplyDelete