Miriam Ottenberg

American journalist

Miriam Ottenberg (October 7, 1914 in Washington, D.C. – November 10, 1982) was the first woman news reporter for The Washington Star who won a Pulitzer Prize in 1960, for a series of articles exposing the practices of unscrupulous used car dealers in Washington D.C.^[1]

Background

Her father was Louis Ottenberg (1886–1960),^[2] a lawyer for 45 years in the District of Columbia, at whose suggestion the American Bar Association created the Magna Carta Memorial in Runnymede, England.^[3] Her mother was Nettie (Podell) Ottenberg, one of the first training social workers in the United States who won the first federal funding for day care.^[4]

Career

Ottenberg's follow-up stories led to enactment of remedial law.^[5]

With several honors and awards given during her career, Ottenberg also was one of the first reporters to reveal that the Mafia was an organized crime network.^[5]^[6] She once summed up her feelings about her role as a journalist: "A reporter should expose the bad and campaign for the good. That's the way I was brought up."^[7]

Awards and recognition

Co-winner of the Washington Newspaper Guild competition for public service articles in 1953
Honorable mention awards in the same category in 1954 and 1958, and in 1959
Pulitzer Prize in 1960 for best investigation report: "Buyer Beware"
Bill Pryor Award of the Washington Newspaper Guild for her series on used car fraud, "Buyer Beware"
First place in the local news category for her stories on an abortion ring and on murders of women
In May 1958, capital police, jurists, and local and federal government officials held a party to pay tribute to Ottenberg's efforts against crime
She was given awards for distinction by the National Council of Jewish Women in 1963 and by the American Association of University Women in 1975
In 1979 she won the Hope Chest Award from the National Capital Chapter of the National MS Society

Works

Ottenberg published the following books:

The Warren Commission Report: The Assassination of President Kennedy Miriam Ottenberg
The Pursuit of Hope Ottenberg, Miriam ISBN 9780892560691
The Federal Prosecutors (Prentice-Hall), a book about the FBI (1962)

References

^ The Pulitzer Prizes. "Miriam Ottenberg of The Evening Star, Washington, DC". www.pulitzer.org. Retrieved October 8, 2020.
^ "Louis Ottenberg". Geni. July 8, 1886. Retrieved April 28, 2020.
^ Ottenberg, Louis (June 1957). "Magna Charta Documents: The Story Behind the Great Charter". American Bar Association Journal. 43 (6): 497. JSTOR 25720021.
^ "Ottenberg, Nettie Podell (1887–1982)." Dictionary of Women Worldwide: 25,000 Women Through the Ages, edited by Anne Commire and Deborah Klezmer, vol. 2, Yorkin Publications, 2007, pp. 1456-1457. Gale eBooks, link.gale.com/apps/doc/CX2588818247/GVRL?u=wikipedia&sid=GVRL&xid=7411f384. Accessed 10 May 2021.
^ ^a ^b Elizabeth A. Brennan, Elizabeth C. Clarage, eds., Who's who of Pulitzer Prize Winners (Greenwood Publishing Group, 1999), ISBN 978-1573561112, p. 356. Excerpts available at Google Books.
^ Marston, Brenda (1988). "Miriam Ottenberg Papers, 1931-1982". University of Wisconsin Digital Collections. Retrieved April 28, 2020.
^ Carper, Elsie (November 10, 1982). "Reporter Miriam Ottenberg Of The Washington Star Dies". Washington Post. Retrieved April 28, 2020.

Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting

Previously the Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting, No Edition Time from 1953–1963 and the Pulitzer Prize for Local Investigative Specialized Reporting from 1964–1984

1953–1975