FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Contact: Candace Crandall
Tel: (703) 503-5064
e-mail: crandall@sepp.org

FAIRFAX, VIRGINIA, AUGUST 11, 1997---The Pulitzer Prize Board has issued a definitive ruling in the controversy surrounding retired Boston Globe editor Ross Gelbspan, author of the recently released book The Heat Is On, and his claim to being a "Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist." In a letter to The Science & Environmental Policy Project dated July 31, Seymour Topping of Columbia University, Administrator of the Pulitzer Prizes, confirms that Gelbspan--who had served as one of two editors on a Pulitzer-winning series written by seven Globe reporters--is not entitled to call himself a Pulitzer Prize journalist on the basis of that role. The Board's move was seen as effectively preventing editors from laying public claim to Pulitzers won by the reporters they supervise.

The controversy over the Pulitzer came to light in May when The Heat Is On was released by Boston publisher Addison-Wesley. In it, Gelbspan writes that a catastrophic global warming is already underway and that attempts by governments and environmental advocacy groups to convince the public of the need for immediate amelioration are being thwarted by the conspiratorial efforts of fossil fuel companies.

Gelbspan states in his biography that he had "won a number of awards, including a Pulitzer Prize in 1984," while working at the Globe. In publicizing the book, Addison-Wesley repeated that claim, and it was picked up in press releases by Fenton Communications, Greenpeace, Sustainable Minnesota, and other environmental advocacy groups.

At the Boston Globe, editors downplayed the significance of Gelbspan's actions, saying that at the newspaper he "was always considered to have [a Pulitzer]" based on his role as co-editor of the prize-winning series. The Pulitzer Prize Board addressed this point directly, however, and disagreed. From Topping's letter:

"Only individuals specifically named in an award citation by the Pulitzer Prize Board are recognized by this office as Pulitzer Prize winners. Where an award is made to the staff of a newspaper without designation of individuals, the editors may informally name those who collaborated to bring about the award. But this office would not consider any one of these latter individuals as entitled to designate self as a Pulitzer Prize winner since the designation would apply only to the newspaper."

The Boston Globe reporters specifically named by the Board as winners of the 1984 Pulitzer Prize were Kenneth Cooper, Joan FitzGerald, Jonathan Kaufman, Norman Lockman, Gary McMillan, Kirk Scharfenberg, and David Wessel.

In addition to the Pulitzer controversy, information has come to light since The Heat Is On was published that appears to cast doubt on Gelbspan's conspiracy thesis. Rather than working against environmental advocacy groups, the Capital Research Center, in its annual report Patterns of Corporate Philanthropy, shows that fossil fuel companies and related industries have been supporting such groups with millions of dollars in donations each year.

For more inforrmation on this controversy, see Ross Gelbspan and the Heat Is On.

For more information on industry grants to environmental advocacy groups, see Industry and Environment.