Times Terrible Two

IS there a journalism award that Donald Barlett and James Steele have not received? A pair of investigative reporters now at Time magazine, Barlett and Steele won two Pulitzers while at the Philadelphia Inquirer. A series they wrote in Time last year received eight different prizes. In 1990, the Washington Journalism Review called them “almost certainly the best team in the history of investigative reporting— Woodward and Bernstein included.”

The crowning moment of their careers came in 1991, when they wrote a massive series (nine parts, 73,000 words) for the Inquirer. “America: What Went Wrong?” was a diagnosis of what ailed the nation’s economy, then in the middle of a recession. The paper got 400,000 requests for reprints before it quit taking orders. The series became a best-selling book, which Bill Clinton used to support his indictment of President Bush’s economic policies. The book popped up again in President Clinton’s last State of the Union speech, when he mentioned its title to show how much the national mood had improved since he took office.

About the Author

Ramesh Ponnuru

Ramesh Ponnuru is the editor of National Review, a columnist for the Washington Post, and a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

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IS there a journalism award that Donald Barlett and James Steele have not received? A pair of investigative reporters now at Time magazine, Barlett and Steele won two Pulitzers while at the Philadelphia Inquirer. A series they wrote in Time last year received eight different prizes. In 1990, the Washington Journalism Review called them “almost certainly the best team in the history of investigative reporting— Woodward and Bernstein included.”

The crowning moment of their careers came in 1991, when they wrote a massive series (nine parts, 73,000 words) for the Inquirer. “America: What Went Wrong?” was a diagnosis of what ailed the nation’s economy, then in the middle of a recession. The paper got 400,000 requests for reprints before it quit taking orders. The series became a best-selling book, which Bill Clinton used to support his indictment of President Bush’s economic policies. The book popped up again in President Clinton’s last State of the Union speech, when he mentioned its title to show how much the national mood had improved since he took office.