2006 Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing
2006 Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing
The 2006 Pulitzer Prize for distinguished Editorial Writing was awarded to Rick Attig and Doug Bates of The Oregonian, "for their persuasive, richly reported editorials on abuses inside a forgotten Oregon mental hospital."
The
prize is given for "distinguished editorial writing, the test of
excellence being clearness of style, moral purpose, sound reasoning,
and power to influence public opinion in what the writer conceives to
be the right direction, in print or online."
Attig and Bates and The Oregonian proved that an old-fashioned editorial crusade can indeed change minds, laws and lives.
The award-winning series of 15 editorials, "Oregon's Forgotten Hospital," exposed the shameful truth about Oregon's neglected, overcrowded state mental hospital in Salem. The hospital had changed little since "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" was filmed there in 1975.
The response to The Oregonian's editorial pressure was dramatic. Administrators hastily removed adolescents from where they had been housed on the hospital premises and placed them in better facilities. Legislators passed a bill creating hundreds of new community health beds. Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski, who bristled in public at the editorials' call for him to take a look at the hospital, quietly did so. After a decade of delay, legislators also enacted a mental health insurance parity bill by a remarkable majority. Finally, the Legislature agreed to replace the ramshackle122-year old disgrace with a modern mental hospital.
Through their work, Attig and Bates changed the lives of Oregon's least powerful citizens. We're proud of them and their work, and the whole team that supported the effort, especially reporter Michelle Roberts and photographer Rob Finch. We're also grateful to the residents and staff of the State Hospital who spoke up and shared their stories.
Read the award-winning series by clicking here.
