Pulitzer Prize Nominee? Actually, No.

THIS article on MSNBC today concerns a recent spate of revelations that several prominent TV reporters' claims to have been Pulitzer Prize nominees were, in fact, false.

The most recent is Charlie Gasparino, now a Wall Street correspondent for the Fox Business Network, but whom I remember best (and fondly) for his years on CNBC. I liked his straightforward, almost pugnacious approach. He didn't seem to suffer fools or liars gladly.

"Until Tuesday afternoon, Gasparino's bio from Fox Business said he was 'nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in beat reporting' in 1992, when he was a reporter for The Wall Street Journal. The same claim is made by his agents at the HarperCollins Speakers Bureau, and on the website of his publisher, Simon and Schuster. In a promotional video in 2008 for CNBC, his former employer, Gasparino declares, 'I am: a writer, son of an ironworker, son of New York, Golden Gloves prospect, a Pulitzer Prize nominee...'"

But, this article continues, a quick check of the Pulitzer nominees for that year revealed, "The winner in beat reporting in 1992 was Gretchen Morgenson, one of Gasparino's competitors on the Wall Street beat for The New York Times. The two other nominees were Patrick Healy of The Boston Globe for education reporting, and Jack Kelley of USA Today for reporting on terrorism.... No Gasparino."

"When asked on Tuesday in which year he was nominated, former boxer Gasparino jabbed back in a one-line email: 'I was nominated by the wsj sir.' But the news organizations don't choose the Pulitzer nominees, any more than the record studios choose Grammy nominees... Later Tuesday, Fox changed its online bio of Gasparino, keeping the P word but dropping any claim to a nomination, saying instead that his work 'was submitted for the Pulitzer.'"