Ben Protess, OPRF ’02, brought his wife and kids to the New York Times’ newsroom in early May for the celebration honoring his team’s 2026 Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting.
“It was special to have them there to see our team’s hard work recognized and rewarded. They have definitely suffered through my missed family events and my talking on the phone with sources during vacations and holidays and weekends,” he said.
Protess has been a New York Times reporter since 2010, originally covering business. He now focuses on public corruption and its impact on society. Since 2017, he has been almost exclusively focused on President Donald Trump.
Protess has written and/or collaborated on articles about Trump’s connections to the cryptocurrency industry, his personal legal problems, and how other countries have attempted to influence foreign policy by investing in Trump ventures. The Times’ investigative team has also detailed how donors got pardons, jobs and access.
Being an investigative reporter is not for the faint-hearted, perhaps especially in the current political climate, but Protess maintains that it’s not his job to make people happy and he’s okay with that.
“Our job is to tell the truth — and sometimes that really pisses people off. But it’s also our job to understand that sometimes what we write can cost people their jobs or reputations. It’s important to handle our work with care and empathy. I want to make sure that the subjects of our stories have every opportunity to respond to what we are writing before we publish,” Protess said.
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The Pulitzer Prizes are announced in the newsroom of The New York Times on Monday, May 4, 2026 in New York City. Front row, left to right: Ben Protess, Eric Lipton and David Yaffe-Bellany — all reporters who were part of the
team awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting — listen to Washington bureau chief Richard Stevenson as he spoke about their prize-winning reporting. -
The Pulitzer Prizes are announced in the newsroom of The New York Times on Monday, May 4, 2026 in New York City. From left to right, on the red staircase: New York Times Managing Marc Lacey and New York Times Managing Editor Carolyn Ryan speak to the newsroom while New York Times Executive Editor Joe Kahn listens. Credit: Todd Heisler/The New York Times -
The Pulitzer Prizes are announced in the newsroom of The New York Times on Monday, May 4, 2026 in New York City. Journalists, other newsroom staff, as well as family and friends applaud for those who won the Pulitzer Prize. Credit: Sara Krulwich/The New York Times
While he gets plenty of unhappy feedback, Protess says he also hears a lot from readers who are grateful that he and his team pushed through threats to report the truth.
Protess acknowledges the mainstream media has been accused by some segments of society of leaning toward the political left. He is adamant that nothing could be further from the truth. He insists his team’s mission is to hold anyone in power to account, regardless of their politics, and to pursue truth and follow the facts—no matter where they lead.
“I know there is an image, fueled by self-interested parties, that the media is an extension of the political left. It benefits a lot of people in power for the American public not to trust the media. And when the facts aren’t on your side, the next best thing is to attack the messenger,” Protess said.
Growing up in Oak Park, Protess had some great teachers who encouraged him to write, but he didn’t seem destined to become a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter. He wasn’t on the staff of OPRF’s Trapeze, although he recalls freelancing a couple articles. He attended Northwestern University as a social policy major and did a public interest fellowship with a community newspaper in North Lawndale, a disenfranchised neighborhood on Chicago’s West Side.
“North Lawndale needed a great paper and great reporting to hold local officials accountable and to serve as a source of entertainment. I grew up seeing the integral role the Wednesday Journal had in our community and it was a key point of inspiration,” he said.
Protess intended to go to law school following graduation — until he bombed the LSAT exam. Fortunately, he applied to and was accepted by Columbia University’s journalism school about the same time he received his LSAT score, a stroke of luck he refers to as a blessing in disguise.
“I knew I wanted to do something that had an impact on the world. I didn’t know what path I’d take. And journalism was in the blood of my family, so it was a natural option to explore,” he said.
Ben’s brother, Dan, is a filmmaker who has written and produced documentaries about Chicago’s gun violence, the politics of parole and the work of Chicago’s peacekeepers. His father, David Protess, is an acclaimed investigative reporter who has dedicated much of his career to freeing or exonerating wrongfully convicted people.
His mother, Joan, is a lawyer and mediator; he credits her with teaching him how to use empathy to earn the trust and goodwill necessary for making people feel comfortable opening up to him. Both parents serve as guides for what he does now as a reporter.
“My father is someone committed to righting wrongs, seeking justice and holding the powerful to account. He taught me that the highest calling in investigative reporting is to shine light on injustice or wrongdoing,” Protess said.
His father points out the differences in his and his son’s approaches to their work.
“I undercover evidence that frees the innocent, while my son exposes the guilty. I’m more of a crusader and Ben lets the facts speak for themselves,” David Protess said.
David is justifiably proud of his son’s Pulitzer—but he found out about it only after talking with Ben for a half hour about his grandson’s Little League game.
“Ben is the coach of his son’s Little League team, like I was the coach of his team. He called me and deconstructed a particularly intense game. His son’s team was losing by one run at the bottom of the last inning. The bases were loaded and one of his players hit a grand slam to win the game. It was only after I asked him if anything else was going on that he said, “Oh yeah, I won the Pulitzer,” David said, laughing.
The media landscape has changed dramatically in just the 18 years that Protess has been reporting. The explosion of digital media allows reporters to present their stories through live blogs, videos and graphics. He admits it can be challenging to keep up with all the formats reporters are expected to feed, especially given that the news never stops. But he believes that readers ultimately benefit from the changes.
While his father in convinced that this year’s Pulitzer is just the first of many, Ben remains focused on reporting the unvarnished truth and letting it speak for itself.
