Funny you mention him. The New York Times helped make Arnett.In 1969 James B.(Scotty) Reston bestowed lavish praise on Arnett, calling him "courageous". Many didn't agree and wrote to correct Reston. Here is Reston's reply to one such letter.
Reston himself won a Pulitzer in 1945 for "news and interpretive articles on the Dumbarton Oaks Security Conference."
Like to find those articles. Dumbarton set up the UN. Three Soviet Agents--Alger Hiss, Harry Dexter White and Lauchlin Currie--were major players at Dumbarton. Did Reston suspect anything was amiss? Or did he praise the three?
Another problematic New York Times Pulitzer is the one awarded to Sydney H. Schanberg in 1976 for his reports on the coverage of the fall of Lon Nol and the rise to power of Pol Pot. Considering what the Khymer Rouge did, Schanberg was off the mark when he wrote:
"It would be tendentious to forecast such abnormal behavior (mass executions) as national policy under a Communist government once the war is over."
Stripping Duranty of the Pulitzer might just be the beginning of a reexamination of many others.