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Pulitzer Center Update January 10, 2025

A Very Uneventful Transition of Power

Author:
Public defense lawyer Heather Shaner outside of a courthouse
English

Public Defender explores the delicate state of U.S. democracy, the forces threatening to tear it...

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Public defender Heather Shaner looks up at the U.S. Capitol building.
Public defender Heather Shaner looks up at the U.S. Capitol building. Image courtesy of Public Defender. United States.

January 6, Four Years Later

On the evening of January 9, 2025, a diverse crowd of 200 people gathered at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library in downtown Washington, D.C., for a screening of Public Defender, Pulitzer Center grantee Andrea Kalin’s documentary about Heather Shaner, a D.C. public defender who represented several individuals criminally charged in connection with the January 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol.  

Three days before the screening, the nation witnessed a peaceful transfer of power as Congress certified the results of the 2024 election. Nothing out of the expected routine happened on Capitol Hill this time. No news is good news.

Today, four years after the violent attempt to overturn an election, we live in an era of the Big Lie. Polls tell us that a sizable percentage of the American population believes January 6, 2021, was a “day of love” or that the Capitol rioters were “normal tourists” or “FBI plants,” or whatever.

The only antidote to the Big Lie is the accurate documentation of what actually happened on that day and in its aftermath. That is what Public Defender does with humility and honesty in the very best tradition of journalism.

In little more than a week, Donald Trump will again be president. He has promised that on the first day he will pardon many of the 1,500 or so Americans who have been criminally charged for their actions on January 6, 2021. As if that will rewrite history.

Trump has also repeatedly complained that the criminal justice system has been unfairly “weaponized” against him.  And—with zero sense of irony—he has vowed that he, in turn, will weaponize it against his political foes.

Public Defender shows our justice system going about its business the way it is supposed to go about its business. It demonstrates the rule of law at work.

Which is no small thing.

Best,

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Tom Hundley signature

Impact

Juliana Zatarim, a 15-year-old Brazilian, won in the Ocean category in the Pulitzer Center’s annual Letter Contest for Our Forests and Ocean. Her letter to Brazil's environment and climate change minister, Marina Silva, highlights the impact of climate change on mangroves. In a response, Silva congratulated Zatarim and outlined Brazil’s efforts to protect mangroves. Silva also praised Zatarim’s advocacy, calling her letter “a necessary reminder” of the issues posed by climate change and encouraging her to continue fighting for climate justice. Zatarim’s letter was inspired by a Pulitzer Center-supported story and earned her $250 to support environmental action in her community.

Read the full update here.


Photo of the Week

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Dionisia Moreno, of Peru, washes her food with water from mountain canals. Glacial retreat has exposed rocks that turned the waters vital to Indigenous communities acidic and toxic. From the story “Where Glaciers Melt, the Rivers Run Red.” Image by Marco Garro. Peru, 2024.

“The consequences of global warming disproportionately impact the most vulnerable, especially in areas where the presence of the government is limited. For communities like Janku, where Dionisia Moreno lives, these consequences are not a distant threat, but a tangible reality that is already transforming their lives.”

— Marco Garro


This message first appeared in the January 10, 2024, edition of the Pulitzer Center's weekly newsletter. Subscribe today.

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