Matt Wuerker has won the Pulitzer Prize and the first one within his publication to do so. Here’s a round up of the more pertinent news stories surrounding his win.
Harris said Wuerker’s award is “truly one for the good guys.”
“I don’t think there is any better example of nice guys finishing first in our newsroom than this award for Matt,” Harris said. “He’s just, as everybody knows, one of the best, nicest, most dedicated, conscientious person in the newsroom, and we really, really appreciate what you have done for us both in winning this award but far more in helping us build a publication.”
Harris also called Wuerker “emblematic of the spirit of POLITICO. He knows that politics is serious stuff, … but he also knows that covering politics and telling the story of politics should be a hell of a lot of fun. Nobody’s having more fun in this business than Matt Wuerker.”
Michael Cavna interviews Matt:
“I’ve been cartooning for some 30 years now, and up until a few years ago, I didn’t think anything like this was vaguely possible,” continues the D.C.-based Wuerker, who was also a Pulitzer finalist in 2009 and 2010, as well as the 2010 winner of the Herblock Prize and the Berryman Award.
The Willamette Week notes that all the Pulitzer finalist have a Portland Oregon connection. Matt Bors and Jack Ohman both work out of Portland and Wuerker also worked out of Portland for many years. They’ve posted one of his earlier cartoons from his time there.
Slate takes a look at Matt’s political bent compared to that of the reputation of Politico:
That’s basically the Democratic argument against the Ryan plan, from the week they were making the argument. My old colleague and friend Mike Riggs finds Weurker’s work to be over-labeled and obvious, but it’s more than that — it’s got a clear, liberal point of view in a time when it’s fashionable to groan about “both parties being responsible for blah blah etc.” And we shouldn’t be surprised! Wuerker cut his teeth at publications like The Nation and Z… poke around the vast Internet, and you can find lots of Wuerker art with a strong POV. It’s a delightful little irony that the publication so often derided by the left as “Drudgico” has won its first Pulitzer for cartoons that made the Left’s arguments.