PolitiFact has won the Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting for our coverage of the 2008 election.

The Pulitzer Board announced the prize during a news conference Monday afternoon at Columbia University in New York.

The board cited PolitiFact's use of "probing reporters and the power of the World Wide Web to examine more than 750 political claims, separating rhetoric from truth to enlighten voters."

Neil Brown, executive editor of the St. Petersburg Times , which launched PolitiFact in August 2007, said the award was "proof that the Web is not a death sentence for newspapers. In fact, PolitiFact marries the power of old-fashioned shoe-leather journalism with an extraordinarily powerful way to present it."

Jack McElroy, editor of the Knoxville News Sentinel , wrote that our award was "the most unusual, and most important, Pulitzer Prize this year."

He wrote, "Online databases are rapidly becoming one of the important tools of watchdog journalism in the digital age. Identifying PolitiFact as the best national reporting of the year will only speed that trend."

During the campaign, PolitiFact had a staff of five Times reporters and editors, plus the support of researchers and writers from Congressional Quarterly , a sister company of the Times . PolitiFact relaunched in January to fact-check Congress and the White House, and added the Obameter, a feature that tracks President Barack Obama’s campaign promises.

PolitiFact's award was one of two Pulitzer Prizes awarded to the St. Petersburg Times Monday. The newspaper also was honored in the Feature Writing category. PolitiFact has begun fact-checking the statements made by cable TV hosts and political pundits and, as the midterm elections near, will expand its fact-checking of state and local races, starting in Florida.



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