Pulitzer's rigged? Argument seems very thin

It seems to be quite a stretch, but the North County Gazette says the Pulitzer Prizes must be rigged -- how else would The Post-Star win?

The Gazette points out that Joyce Dehli, Lee's vice president for news, sits on the Pulitzer Prize board and that Ken Tingley, editor of The Post-Star, was a Pulitzer prize judge. Neither were involved in judging categories in which Lee newspapers were finalists. Another part of the Gazette's argument revolves around Lee's financially unstable status -- which is true of nearly any newspaper chain right now.

The Gazette doesn't look into the history of Lee and the Pulitzer Prizes: I looked through the winners from 1985 to 2009, and The Post-Star is the only Lee paper that I saw. Is this the first paper to win a Pulitzer Prize under Lee's ownership?

Post-Star's editorial page editor wins Pulitzer

Post-Star editorial page editor Mark Mahoney won the Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing. It's the first Pulitzer for The Post-Star in Glens Falls, N.Y., and faced competition from The Chicago Tribune and The Washington Post in this category. The Post-Star is the smallest paper among this year's winners.