Senator Claire McCaskill of Montana recalled on Monday how the Post’s stories “turned my stomach”. She said the Post’s reporting gave a lot of “oomph” to stalled legislation to improve treatment for active-duty military and veterans.

The Post won the national reporting prize for its four-part series about how Cheney has wielded power and policy influence like no previous vice-president. Reporters Barton Gellman and Jo Becker spent a year and interviewed more than 200 people in their research on Cheney. Gellman said on Monday that the Cheney story was such a “tough nut to crack” that he had ducked it for some time and worried that months of reporting might lead to nothing. The investigative reporting prize was shared by The New York Times and the Chicago Tribune for stories that led to substantial policy changes. The Times story exposed how medicine and other imports from China included toxic ingredients. The Tribune investigation showed poor Government regulation of toys, car seats and cribs, and led to a recall of hazardous products.

Meanwhile, Junot Diaz has won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction for The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, an ambitious, unconventional novel about a nerdy Dominican immigrant and his family that took him 11 years to complete. “It’s extraordinary how many people read a book that’s new and weird and befriend it,” a stunned Diaz said shortly after receiving the news.

The Pulitzer Board also gave a special citation to living legend Bob Dylan, the first rock musician to be so honoured.

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