Miriam Ottenberg

Miriam Ottenberg (October 7, 1914 in Washington, D.C. – November 10, 1982) was the first woman news reporter for The Washington Star who won a Pulitzer Prize in 1960, for a series of articles exposing the practices of unscrupulous used car dealers in Washington D.C.

Background

Her father was Louis Ottenberg, a lawyer for 45 years in the District of Columbia, at whose suggestion the American Bar Association created the Magna Carta Memorial in Runnymede, England. Her mother was Nettie (Podell) Ottenberg, one of the first training social workers in the United States who won the first federal funding for day care.

Career

Ottenberg's follow-up stories led to enactment of remedial law.

With several honors and awards given during her career, Ottenberg also was one of the first reporters to reveal that the Mafia was an organized crime network. She once summed up her feelings about her role as a journalist: "A reporter should expose the bad and campaign for the good. That's the way I was brought up."

Ottenberg appeared on the CBS television program, I've Got a Secret, on the May 4, 1960 episode. Her secret was “We all won Pulitzer Prizes this week.”

Awards and recognition

Works

Ottenberg published the following books:

References

  1. ↑ The Pulitzer Prizes. "Miriam Ottenberg of The Evening Star, Washington, DC". www.pulitzer.org. Retrieved October 8, 2020.
  2. ↑ Ottenberg, Louis (June 1957). "Magna Charta Documents: The Story Behind the Great Charter". American Bar Association Journal. 43 (6): 497. JSTOR 25720021.
  3. ↑ "Ottenberg, Nettie Podell (1887–1982)." Dictionary of Women Worldwide: 25,000 Women Through the Ages, edited by Anne Commire and Deborah Klezmer, vol. 2, Yorkin Publications, 2007, pp. 1456-1457. Gale eBooks, link.gale.com/apps/doc/CX2588818247/GVRL?u=wikipedia&sid=GVRL&xid=7411f384. Accessed 10 May 2021.
  4. 1 2 Elizabeth A. Brennan, Elizabeth C. Clarage, eds., Who's who of Pulitzer Prize Winners (Greenwood Publishing Group, 1999), ISBN 978-1573561112, p. 356. Excerpts available at Google Books.
  5. ↑ Marston, Brenda (1988). "Miriam Ottenberg Papers, 1931-1982". University of Wisconsin Digital Collections. Retrieved April 28, 2020.
  6. ↑ Carper, Elsie (November 10, 1982). "Reporter Miriam Ottenberg Of The Washington Star Dies". Washington Post. Retrieved April 28, 2020.
  7. ↑ "384". ivegotasecret.nicepage.io.