Politics & Government

McClatchy Washington Bureau reporters reach Pulitzer Prize finals for CIA coverage

By Michael Doyle - McClatchy Washington Bureau

April 20, 2015 03:45 PM

Ali Watkins, Jonathan Landay, and Marisa Taylor were Pulitzer finalists for National Reporting.
Ali Watkins, Jonathan Landay, and Marisa Taylor were Pulitzer finalists for National Reporting.
Ali Watkins, Jonathan Landay, and Marisa Taylor were Pulitzer finalists for National Reporting.

The McClatchy Washington Bureau’s coverage of the CIA interrogation program and ensuing Senate investigation earned accolades Monday, with three bureau reporters getting the nod as a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting.

McClatchy reporters Marisa Taylor and Jonathan S. Landay and former bureau intern and reporter Ali Watkins won the finalist honors for their yearlong reporting that included numerous scoops, insights and revelations.

“It was the story for a significant period of time across the nation,” McClatchy Co. President and Chief Executive Officer Patrick J. Talamantes noted in a midafternoon meeting with bureau staffers.

Taylor, Landay and Watkins, who is now a reporter for the Huffington Post, were named finalists along with two reporters from The New York Times, who were recognized for their coverage of the Florida State University football program. The National Reporting prize went to Carol D. Leonnig of the Washington Post for her coverage of the Secret Service.

The McClatchy team became the second from the McClatchy Washington Bureau to reach the Pulitzer Prize finals. Reporters Greg Gordon, Chris Adams and Kevin G. Hall were tapped in 2010 for their coverage of Goldman Sachs and the U.S. economic meltdown.

James Asher, McClatchy’s Washington bureau chief, said the coverage demonstrated the company’s “commitment to independent, aggressive journalism.”

“All of us feel like we were able to do this work because of the support from the bureau,” Taylor said.

The 10 stories included in the McClatchy prize entry revealed that the White House was withholding myriad documents from Senate investigators. The McClatchy reporters laid bare important details about the CIA’s enhanced interrogation program as well as the conflicts between investigators and the intelligence agency.

“It was the coolest experience ever covering this story,” said Watkins, 23. “I wouldn’t trade the experience of covering this story for anything.”

Landay, the bureau’s national security reporter, recalled staking out sources in freezing, midwinter weather.

“This was a serious team effort, and it involved good old-fashioned, shoe-leather reporting,” Landay said.

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