And the Winner Is...

The Pulitzer Prizes were annouced yesterday. Most of the attention focused on the competition between The New York Times and the Washington Post, the MSM outlets that normally lead the annual awards list. For those keeping score at home, the Post won six Pulitzers this year, compared to only two for the NYT. Looks like Pinch Sulzberger's business and editorial plan for the Gray Lady is really paying off. Not only is the paper losing its journalistic edge; the company's stock is trading at roughly half its price of a few years ago.

But we digress. There was actually some good news in this year's Pulitzer results. The great Michael Ramirez of Investor's Business Daily picked up his second prize for editorial cartooning, producing what the jury described as "provocative" cartoons.

We've been fans of Mr. Ramirez since his days at the Memphis Commercial Appeal, where he won his first Pulitzer back in 1994. He moved to California in 1997, becoming the editorial cartoonist for the Los Angeles Times. Ramirez's conservative cartoons were often in sharp contrast to the paper's liberal editorial positions. He left the paper during a purge of its editorial page in 2006.

At ther risk of stating the obvious, we've long observed that Ramirez is the best editorial cartoonist working today. With yesterday's announcement, Mr. Ramirez becomes part of an elite group--he is one of only 10 editorial cartoonists who've won at least two Pulitzers, dating back to the award's inception almost 90 years ago.

Some recent examples from the Ramirez portfolio, from Daryl Cagle's cartoon page.