Tiny U.S. paper beats big dailies for top prize

Press, 18 April 1979, Page 9

Tiny U.S. paper beats big dailies for top prize

NZPA Point Reyes, (California) The weekly “Point Reyes Light’’ newspaper is housed in a tiny red, white, and blue shop. The staff conists of David Mitchell, his wife, Cathy, and one full-time reporter. But the “Light” (circulation 2700) did something this week that many big daily newspapers never have — it won a Pulitzer Prize: the 1979 award for public service for an investigation of Synanon. the controversial California drug and alcohol rehabilitation group. “Oh, my God, that’s wonderful,” said David Mitchell when told of the award, “I’m overwhelmed. It’s like turning five cents into a million dollars.” The annual Pulitzer Prizes, set up under the will of Joseph Pulitzer, publisher of the now-defunct “New York World” newspaper, are issued to 19 winners in the categories of journalism, letters, drama, and music. The journalism prizes are jealously competed for by all the big American newspapers.

The Mitchells bought the “Light” about four years ago for “under $50,000” after Mitchell had worked on several other small newspapers. “We’re so small, Cathy has a teaching job on the side to help make ends meet,” said Mitchell.

“We did something like 100 stories and editorials on Synanon last year,” Mitchell said. “With only one reporter to help get out the whole paper, it has been an immense burden.

“We wrote about Synanon in virtually every issue last year. We criticised state and local governments for not

taking action” on allegations of abuse within the organisation, he said. > During the investigation, ; the Mitchells, who did most of the writing, uncovered .! allegations of beatings, 1 hoarding of weapons, and , revenge attacks. Two Synanon members ■ and its founder, Charles De- ; derich, have been charged ; with conspiracy to commit murder and other counts in : connection with a rat- : tiesnake attack on a Los Angeles lawyer. Mitchell said that the award represented an important commentary about journalism. “It’s not how big you are,” he said, “it’s what you do with the space available to you.” In the rest of the prize list, John Cheever won the 1979 award for fiction for a collection of short stories and Sam Shepard, whose works have been performed primarily off Broadway, won the prize for drama for “Buried Child.” Robert Penn Warren, won his third Pulitzer, the 1979 prize for poetry, for his work, “Now and Then: Poems 1976-1978.” Leonard Baker, a former newspaper reporter, won the prize for biography for his work, “Days of Sorrow and Pain: Leo Beck and the Berlin Jews.” Published in T 978, the book is the story of Berlin’s leading rabbi, Leo Beck, who helped German Jews escape ias Hitler was coming to I power. Richard Ben Cramer, a 28-year-old reporter for the “Philadelphia Inquirer,” won the Pulitzer for international reporting for his dispatches from the Middle East which personalised the effects of war.