Washington Post's Former Video Game Reporter Wins Pulitzer for V-Tech Coverage

Washington Post's Former Video Game Reporter Wins Pulitzer for V-Tech Coverage

April 15, 2008
Major 'gratz to Jose Antonio Vargas (left) of the Washington Post, who was part of the WaPo team that recently scored a Pulitzer Prize for its coverage of last year's Virginia Tech massacre.

As reported by the Mountain View Voice, Vargas used Facebook to locate a witness to the shootings on the V-Tech campus. Of the award, Vargas said:
I won this as part of a team, that's important. I didn't cure cancer... I owe my Pulitzer to Facebook reporting,

I've covered everything from video game culture to HIV and AIDS in Washington to national presidential campaigns. Sometimes I wonder if I'm way too lucky. It hasn't quite literally sunk in yet.

GP: I met Jose at E3 2006, where we talked for a while over coffee in a Starbucks a few blocks from the L.A. Convention Center. It was apparent that he had the requisites for a good reporter. Jose is personable, yet not shy about asking the tough questions. At the time, he was working on what is probably the best profile of then-ESA boss Doug Lowenstein that I've ever read. After that initial meeting, he also picked my brain (such as it is) for the occasional quote.

Well done, Jose!
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[...] wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptMajor ‘gratz to Jose Antonio Vargas (left) of the Washington Post, who was part of the WaPo team that recently scored a Pulitzer Prize for its coverage of last year’s Virginia Tech massacre. As reported by the Mountain View Voice, Vargas used Facebook to locate a witness to the shootings on the V-Tech campus. Of the award, Vargas said: I won this as part of a team, that’s important. I didn’t cure cancer… I owe my Pulitzer to Facebook reporting, [...]
For shame! Obviously the Pulitzer Prize Committee is in on the Conspiracy Against Jack Thompson! Why else would they reward such reporting when we all know because Jacko never forgets to remind us that the Washington Post originally reported that the killer at V-Tech trained on the Counter-Strike Murder Simulator and then removed it in an obvious cover up! Now the Pulitzer Prize Committee has rewarded that coverup! I can only hope that the Pulitzer people have a good fax machine capable of handling the barrage of faxes that Jacko is no boubt going to sent their way.
cool
That's great...
Congratulations to Mr. Vargas! Nice to see someone recognized for responsible reporting in the face of such obvious sensationalism bait.
Now THAT'S journalism! Outstanding!

You'll see few, if any, from tabloid trash news services, such as FOX News, receiving such honors.

Even if you don't like the Washington Post, clearly this team earned the rewards for their hard work.

Nightwng2000
NW2K Software
Ah, journalism.

That's better than that Angry German Kid coverage on German TV.
@nightwng2000:

Yeah Bill, where's your Pulitzer?

Oh, my bad. :P
DarkTetsuya
But Brill-o is not a reporter anymore. =^^=
V-Tech makes telephones. Virginia Tech (VT, VPI, maybe VA Tech if you are dolt doing color commentary during football season) is the name of the school.
@AbsolutMauser

What does it matter?

@jccalhoun

I'm willing to wager he is too busy worrying about how he is going to be disbarred to send faxes about that.

@Topic

Congratulations, Mr. Vargas!

GamePolitics ShoutBox

Posted 11/07/09 at 04:27pm
ZippyDSMlee: man I got alot of junk and dup files too >< god I need orginization...and no not the knee capping media mafia kind :P
Posted 11/07/09 at 04:26pm
ZippyDSMlee: replaced :P
Posted 11/07/09 at 04:23pm
ZippyDSMlee: beemoh:hey its like 60GB porn,400GB anime 100GB games and crap I have took from all my DVDs, I hate waiting on dvds to install stuff..... oh and 40GB of my porn was in the found.000 folder...mostly corrupted.... least I got names of wut needs to be repa
Posted 11/07/09 at 04:18pm
beemoh: @Zip: ...and you'd have to spend all that time re-downloading that porn?
Posted 11/07/09 at 03:34pm
ZippyDSMlee: ggrrrrr......vista lost one of my hard drives and I had a heart attack thinking I lost 1TB of data....
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:58am
JDKJ: Which could be explained by both (a) and (b).
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:56am
Austin_Lewis: JDKJ: You forgot C) the fact that, for some reason, every time he did something that would suggest he shouldn't be in the military, let alone an officer, higher ups ignored it or let it slide.
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:51am
JDKJ: Part of the problem is, I believe, that (a) the Army had a lot of time and money already invested in him and which they were unwilling to simply write-off and (b) an increasing need for the type of skills and services he provided.
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:48am
JDKJ: And that even if he was begging not to get cut loose, he was apparently a real good candidate for being cut loose, anyway.
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:11am
JDKJ: @chada: And while Kennedy once noted that there's usually more than enough blame for everyone to get a slice, the possibility that the Army was unwilling to cut loose someone who was asking to get cut loose could be a factor.
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:07am
ZippyDSMlee: *noms on his feet*..nomnomnomnom*droooll* ...wuuutttttt uuu looking at?
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:05am
JDKJ: I'm no psychologist, but I'm told that crazy people have a tendency to do crazy things.
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:03am
chadachada321: Whoops, was out of the convo for awhile. I do wonder what type of ammo he used etc, but the real issue is WHY he did it, not HOW
Posted 11/07/09 at 09:56am
JDKJ: But if it turns out that they actually did, they'll have Hell to pay.
Posted 11/07/09 at 09:45am
JDKJ: And I'd tend to rule out the possibilty of FN Herstal supplying restricted ammunition to someone merely because they're ordering it from a military base.
Posted 11/07/09 at 09:37am
JDKJ: I know you don't leave your gated community and get around much in dark alleys, so you may be surprised to learn that there's this thing called "the black market" where, if you've got enough money, ain't too much of anything which can't be bought.
Posted 11/07/09 at 09:36am
Austin_Lewis: Or, maybe he or someone else at the base ordered the SS190 from FN Herstal.
Posted 11/07/09 at 09:32am
Austin_Lewis: the hands of private owners. They run about 300 dollars minimum for a box of 50, and boxes of AP 5.7 are extremely scarce, mainly residing in the hands of Class III stores or individuals who for one reason or another got a demo box of it.
Posted 11/07/09 at 09:30am
Austin_Lewis: There are other firearms that fire the 5.7. However, I too would like to know where he got the ammo and what kind was used. Maybe Hasan, planning not to live through this, went out and bought one the boxes of SS190 that are floating around in
Posted 11/07/09 at 08:44am
JDKJ: And it isn't yet clear what type of ammunition Hasan used. It's strange that he purchased a gun but didn't purchase ammunition for it at the same place and time. Especially because the calibre required is peculiar to the actual gun.
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