Former Daily Bruin editor awarded Pulitzer Prize for journalism
Robert Faturechi, a UCLA alumnus and Daily Bruin reporter, won a Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting on Monday. Faturechi was the editor for Enterprise, the Bruin’s long-term investigative section, from 2007 to 2008. (Daily Bruin file photo)
By Saumya Gupta
May 4, 2020 5:03 p.m.
This post was updated May 5 at 12:55 a.m.
A UCLA alumnus and former Daily Bruin editor won a Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting on Monday.
Robert Faturechi won the award alongside fellow ProPublica reporters T. Christian Miller and Megan Rose for their coverage of two accidents that occured in the Navy’s 7th fleet in 2017.
The team published a series of articles called “Disaster in the Pacific,” in which they investigated two deadly collisions between the USS Fitzgerald and the USS John S. McCain with cargo vessels and detailed the infrastructural and technological mishaps that caused it.
Faturechi wrote for the Daily Bruin from 2004 to 2008, notably uncovering preferential treatment in the UCLA School of Dentistry admissions, for which he was honored with a Sunshine Award by the Society for Professional Journalists in 2008. He was also the editor for Enterprise, the Bruin’s long-term investigative section, from 2007 to 2008.
The Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting was also awarded to writers at The Seattle Times for their coverage of design flaws in Boeing’s 737 MAX airplanes.
The 2020 Pulitzer Prizes, which are typically announced at Columbia University, were instead announced on YouTube because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Each year the Pulitzer Prize Board issues awards in 22 categories. The award is widely considered to be the most prestigious honor in journalism. The New York Times won the most prizes, winning in the categories of Investigative Reporting, International Reporting and Commentary.
The last time a Daily Bruin alumnus won the award was in 2017.
