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Daily News columnist John Baer reports that The Patriot-News has submitted Sara Ganim’s stories about the Jerry Sandusky sexual abuse allegations for a Pulitzer Prize. (The deadline to enter was last week, although it has been extended.) Executive Editor Cate Barron confirmed that the paper has entered the contest, saying only that it “will be up against hundreds of other entries.”
In a talk at the University of Notre Dame on Monday, Ganim described how she reported on the Penn State scandal and how the community reacted. Although she received hate mail for her stories, she said the backlash was worse when she reported that Penn State’s Nittany Lion mascot had been charged with DUI.
Notre Dame’s student newspaper reported that Ganim’s advice to journalism students was “to take positions that offer hands-on experience with writing and multimedia, not just those that pay well or come with a big name. ‘Your first job is never your dream job, you don’t want it to be your dream job,’ Ganim said.”
Russ Eshleman, associate head of Penn State’s journalism department, told Baer what Ganim was like as a student:
She was almost like a veteran reporter in that she recognized what a good story was. … My biggest concern as her instructor was to keep to the basic rule of medicine and do no harm. I didn’t want to screw her up.
Earlier: Ganim says Sandusky story is “just like every other crime story that I report” (Poynter) | Ganim expects to write many more stories about sexual abuse in her career (Poynter)
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