Gilbert M. Gaul

For the American artist, see Gilbert Gaul (artist).

Gilbert M. Gaul (born May 18, 1951) is an American journalist. He has won two Pulitzer Prizes and been a finalist for three others.

Gaul was born in Jersey City and grew up in Kearny, New Jersey. He attended St. Benedict's Prep in Newark, NJ, where he was a state champion in the javelin throw. He graduated from Fairleigh Dickinson University in 1973 and shortly thereafter started his career as a journalist.

Gaul worked at the Times-News in Lehighton, Pennsylvania, before moving to The Pottsville Republican in the anthracite coal region. There, he teamed with Elliot Jaspin on a five-part series on the collapse of the huge Blue Coal Corporation, once one of the largest producers of soft coal. For their efforts, they shared the 1979 Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting, citing "stories on the destruction of the Blue Coal Company by men with ties to organized crime",[1] among other national reporting awards. In 1980, Gaul worked for the Philadelphia Bulletin covering Atlantic City, which recently had added casino gaming. He returned to Pottsville a year later and worked on a series detailing millions in waste in the county government, which won a National Headliners Award for investigative reporting.

In 1982-1983, Gaul was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University, where he studied business, law and public health. He briefly returned to Pottsville and then moved to The Philadelphia Inquirer, covering medical economics on the business staff. In 1989, Gaul wrote a five-part series on the business of buying and selling human blood, as well as safety flaws in the nation's blood system. The Inquirer won next year's Pulitzer Prize for Public Service citing "reporting by Gilbert M. Gaul that disclosed how the American blood industry operates with little government regulation or supervision."[2] Meanwhile, Gaul was personally a finalist for the National Reporting Pulitzer. In all, Gaul worked at The Inquirer for 18 years. In 1994, he was again finalist for the National Reporting Pulitzer, for a series disclosing the explosive growth of non-profit organizations and their impact on the economy and tax laws. The series won numerous awards, including the Havard Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting. In 2001, Gaul was finalist for the National Reporting Pulitzer for a five-part series on the business and commercialization of college sports. (On all three occasions there were three Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting finalists, the winner and two runners-up.)[3]

In 2000, Gaul briefly worked at The New York Times and in 2001 joined the national investigative staff at The Washington Post, where he remained through 2009. While there, Gaul authored a number of series, including a 2006 detailing $15 billion in waste in federal agricultural subsidies that was a Pulitzer finalist in National Reporting. Dan Morgan and Sara Cohen worked with Gaul on the series.

In 2010, Gaul became a contributing writer to the non-profit Kaiser Health News, specializing in enterprise and long-form stories.

He is also the author of three books, including Giant Steps, a chronicle of his son, Cary, who was born with spina bifida.

Gaul is married to Cathryn Candy, an art teacher. His older son, Gregory, a Princeton graduate, lives and works in Tennessee.

Quotes

On Wikipedia:

there is no way for me to verify the information without fact-checking, in which case it isn't really saving me any time....I like much of the new technology... But to me rules, borders, guidelines and transparency matter a lot, I need and want to be able to trust the people I am reading or chatting with. If I can't, what is the point?[4]

On college sports:

From where I sit, college presidents really don’t want to take responsibility for the college sports mess. To do so would require them to offend their powerful athletic departments and alumni. It is a no-win situation. And as we already know, in college sports, winning is everything.[5]

Works

References

  1. ↑ "Local Investigative Specialized Reporting". The Pulitzer Prizes. Retrieved 2013-11-19.
  2. ↑ "Public Service". The Pulitzer Prizes. Retrieved 2013-11-19.
  3. ↑ "National Reporting". The Pulitzer Prizes. Retrieved 2013-11-19.
  4. ↑ http://www.ajr.org/article.asp?id=4461
  5. ↑ Gilbert M. Gaul (November 27, 2009). "The Department of Lucrative Athletics". The New York Times.

External links

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