preview

Essay on Pulitzer Prize-Winning Journalists: Ernie Pyle

Better Essays
Open Document

Words came from readers in Cleveland that “‘the impression soon prevails in your mind that Ernie Pyle… is the President of the United State’” (Tobin 29). In the midst of World War II Ernie Pyle stood out from the crowd of journalists with a style that hadn’t been seen before but spoke to American readers all over both on the home front and abroad. One writer and historian, Jordan Braverman, puts it into perspective however the lack of truth of some reporting by saying, “Soldiers were known to have huddled in foxholes under heavy aerial bombardment, while their radios were telling them that U.S. forces had complete control of the skies in their battle sector” (Braverman 84). It wasn’t just radio that did this but also print media that both …show more content…

what time? anyone hurt? What’s your name?...then hurry back to headquarters” (Tobin 78). Ernie Pyle’s approach to journalism differed greatly from this because he would become a part of the group he was writing about. One observer of his career described “he had a gift for becoming a member of a group while retaining his ability to explain it to outsiders” (Tobin 20).
Pyle didn’t write his columns about the individual battle strategies that the army used because that is not something that mattered to his audience. His focus often was individual narratives and human-interest stories. When he traveled to forty-eight different states, he wrote about the people he met and the stories they lived.
With the subject, his relateability, and his recognition of what the audience both needed to hear and wanted hear he became very connected with the audience. He wrote in a conversational manner, at one point Pyle stated, “‘I’m really a letter writer’” (Tobin 87). This allowed for him to be easy to follow and therefore many people looked at Pyle as a writer of ordinary people living their lives. If he had done only that, however, Pyle’s writing would be boring. What Pyle brings to light instead with his columns are “unknown people doing extraordinary things” (Tobin 30). Take Pyle’s first column of death he encounters during the war. He doesn’t tell the reader directly the who, what and where, but played out the events as he felt and lived them. He describes the feeling of

Get Access
Related
Get Access