UPPSC 2021 Prelims GS Paper-I · Question 60 of 150

Correct — B, The New York Times. The 2021 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service — the most prestigious of the Pulitzers, awarded as a gold medal — went to The New York Times for its courageous, prescient and sweeping coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic, which exposed racial and economic inequities and government failures and filled a data vacuum that helped authorities, health-care providers and the public respond. No other newspaper shared the Public Service award that year.

• (a)The Wall Street Journal — Wrong — a major US daily, but it did not win the 2021 Pulitzer Prize in the Public Service category, which went to The New York Times.
• (c)The Washington Post — Wrong — although a leading national paper, it was not the winner of the 2021 Public Service Pulitzer; that honour went to The New York Times.
• (d)New York Post — Wrong — a separate New York tabloid; it did not win the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service.

The Pulitzer Prizes are the premier United States awards for achievement in journalism, letters, drama and music, administered by Columbia University. The Public Service category is the flagship award: it is given to a news ORGANISATION (not an individual) and is the only Pulitzer presented as a gold medal. In 2021 the pandemic dominated the awards, and The New York Times took the Public Service medal for its coronavirus reporting.

This is a straightforward current-affairs recall from the 2021 Pulitzers. All four options are well-known American newspapers, so the discriminator is simply which one won the specific Public Service category in 2021 — The New York Times.

• 2021 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service → The New York Times, for its coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Public Service is the flagship Pulitzer and the only category awarded as a gold medal; it goes to an organisation, not an individual.
• The Pulitzer Prizes are administered by Columbia University, New York, under the will of publisher Joseph Pulitzer (first awarded 1917).
• The 2021 awards were heavily shaped by pandemic and racial-justice reporting.

• Confusing which specific US daily won the 2021 Public Service medal among several famous names
• Assuming the Public Service Pulitzer can be awarded to an individual — it goes to an organisation

UPPSC and UPSC current-affairs items ask 'who/which won the Pulitzer/Nobel/major award in year X' — track the flagship-category winners each year.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Pulitzer Prize for Public Service, unlike the other Pulitzer categories, is awarded in the form of a

  • (a)cash prize only
  • (b)gold medal
  • (c)silver plaque
  • (d)certificate of merit

  Answer(b) gold medal — the Public Service award is the only Pulitzer presented as a gold medal, to a news organisation.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Pulitzer Prizes, awarded annually for excellence in journalism and the arts, are administered by which institution?

  • (a)Harvard University
  • (b)Columbia University
  • (c)Yale University
  • (d)The New York Times

  Answer(b) Columbia University — the Pulitzers are administered by Columbia University in New York.