| 1970 |
Marquis W. Childs |
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, distinguished commentary during 1969
|
| 1971 |
William A. Caldwell |
Record, Hackensack, New Jersey, for his commentary in his daily column
|
| 1972 |
Mike Royko |
Chicago Daily News, for his columns during 1971
|
| 1973 |
David Broder |
Washington Post, for his columns during 1972
|
| 1974 |
Edwin A. Roberts Jr |
National Observer, for his commentary on public affairs during 1973
|
| 1975 |
Mary McGrory |
Washington Star, for her commentary on public affairs during 1974
|
| 1976 |
Walter Wellesley Smith |
New York Times, for his commentary on sports in 1975 and for many other years
|
| 1977 |
George Will |
Washington Post Writers Group, for distinguished commentary on a variety of topics
|
| 1978 |
William Safire |
New York Times, for commentary on the Bert Lance affair
|
| 1979 |
Russell Baker |
New York Times
|
| 1980 |
Ellen Goodman |
Boston Globe
|
| 1981 |
Dave Anderson |
New York Times, for his commentary on sports
|
| 1982 |
Art Buchwald |
Los Angeles Times Syndicate
|
| 1983 |
Claude Sitton |
Raleigh (N. C.) News & Observer,
|
| 1984 |
Vermont Royster |
Wall Street Journal,
|
| 1985 |
Murray Kempton |
Newsday, Long Island, N.Y., for witty and insightful reflection on public issues in 1984 and throughout a distinguished career
|
| 1986 |
Jimmy Breslin |
New York Daily News, for columns which consistently champion ordinary citizens
|
| 1987 |
Charles Krauthammer |
Washington Post Writers Group, for his witty and insightful columns on national issues
|
| 1988 |
Dave Barry |
Miami Herald, for his consistently effective use of humor as a device for presenting fresh insights into serious concerns
|
| 1989 |
Clarence Page |
Chicago Tribune, for his provocative columns on local and national affairs
|
| 1990 |
Jim Murray |
Los Angeles Times, for his sports columns
|
| 1991 |
Jim Hoagland |
Washington Post, for searching and prescient columns on events leading up to the Gulf War and on the political problems of Mikhail Gorbachev
|
| 1992 |
Anna Quindlen |
New York Times, for her compelling columns on a wide range of personal and political topics
|
| 1993 |
Liz Balmaseda |
Miami Herald, for her commentary from Haiti about deteriorating political and social conditions and her columns about Cuban-Americans in Miami
|
| 1994 |
William Raspberry |
Washington Post, for his compelling commentaries on a variety of social and political topics
|
| 1995 |
Jim Dwyer |
Newsday, Long Island, N.Y., for his compelling and compassionate columns about New York City
|
| 1996 |
E. R. Shipp |
New York Daily News, for her penetrating columns on race, welfare and other social issues
|
| 1997 |
Eileen McNamara |
Boston Globe, for her many-sided columns on Massachusetts people and issues
|
| 1998 |
Mike McAlary |
New York Daily News, for reporting on the brutalization of a Haitian immigrant by police officers at a Brooklyn stationhouse
|
| 1999 |
Maureen Dowd |
New York Times, for her fresh and insightful columns on the impact of President Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinsky
|
| 2000 |
Paul A. Gigot |
Wall Street Journal, for his informative and insightful columns on politics and government
|
| 2001 |
Dorothy Rabinowitz |
Wall Street Journal, for her articles on American society and culture
|
| 2002 |
Thomas Friedman |
New York Times, for his clarity of vision, based on extensive reporting, in commenting on the worldwide impact of the terrorist threat
|
| 2003 |
Colbert King |
Washington Post, for his against-the-grain columns that speak to people in power with ferocity and wisdom
|
| 2004 |
Leonard Pitts, Jr |
Miami Herald, for his fresh, vibrant columns that spoke, with both passion and compassion, to ordinary people on often divisive issues
|
| 2009 |
Eugene H. Robinson |
Washington Post, for his columns on the 2008 presidential campaign |
