WND's Pulitzer Prize nominations

Editor’s note: Joseph Farah is on vacation. The following is a repeat of his popular column from Jan. 29.

For any good cause to advance requires it becoming somebody's obsession.

In April, the Pulitzer Prize board will announce its selections of the best reporting and commentary by U.S. news organizations in 2015.

For the first time in nearly 19 years, WND has submitted two nominations for consideration – one for reporting on the cover-up and unjustifiable shooting death by police and Secret Service agents of Miriam Carey in the nation's capital and the other for commentary on the same subject.

In a very real way, the apparent state execution of Miriam Carey, an innocent women with a baby in tow in the nation's capital, became my obsession. I didn't know her. But from the very first day, something seemed obviously and dreadfully awry to me with the official explanations. I could see something like this happening to my wife, my sister, one of my daughters.

It was so repugnant to me that the thought of it literally kept me awake at night – too many nights. Something inside of me just couldn't let it go. It was a terrible injustice. I grew to despise the cover-up, the total lack of transparency, the way the Congress of the United States gave the police officers a standing ovation that very day – as if the cops had done something heroic. As time has gone by, the sense of outrage has not dissipated. In fact, as I write this, the stonewalling continues at the highest levels of the land.

And that's why we took a chance this year and made the commitment to submit our work on this case for the most prestigious journalism award in the world. If WND's diligent commitment to this case resulted in a Pulitzer Prize or two, it would give the Miriam Carey case more prominence and exposure – the kind that could ultimately result in a measure of justice being served.

I often ponder why we hear so much protest and see so much more news coverage of other police shootings that are, frankly, much more justifiable, much more understandable under the circumstances, tragic, as any violent death is, but occupying that gray area in which the victim bears some responsibility.

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There's no gray area in the case of the Miriam Carey death. It was akin to a police firing squad. And it wasn't just local police who were involved. It included the Secret Service, some of the most highly trained cops in the world. It took place in broad daylight in Washington, D.C. The investigation was overseen by the U.S. Justice Department and the attorney general of the United States – a Cabinet level department and the highest law enforcement official in the land, one who had been so critical of local police shootings.

All of this, and much more that I cannot even put into words, has caused me to be that person who remains obsessed about this case even now. It has caused me to spread my obsession to others. WND's intrepid Washington reporter certainly caught that fever years ago. This is our cause.

And I pray to God that my obsession, our obsession, will ultimately lead to justice being served – not because it will bring Miriam Carey back from the dead, but so that it might prevent future Miriam Careys from being so abused and so mistreated.

I ask you to join me in that prayer – that no more innocent people are gunned down in our streets, particularly the streets of our nation's capital, and that no more cover-ups of this kind will ever be perpetrated again by the highest-ranking law enforcement officials in the land.

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