No Pulitzer for the National Enquirer

Supermarket tabloid The National Enquirer is ineligible to compete for the nation’s top journalism award, the administrator of the Pulitzer Prize board said today, dashing the publication’s hopes to enter the competition for its reporting on the John Edwards’ love child scandal.

When the former presidential candidate confirmed on Thursday that he had fathered a child with his former campaign videographer Rielle Hunter, the Enquirer said that it would submit its reporting for the prize.

News of the magazine’s plan sparked fierce debate among journalists over whether an outlet that is allowed to pay sources for information should be eligible to compete for the vaunted award. However, despite the insider bristling and posturing, the mag’s ineligibility is based on a technicality.

"We checked the Enquirer Web site, and it apparently calls itself a magazine. Under our rules, magazines (both print and Web versions) and broadcast entities are ineligible," said the prize administrator Sig Gissler in an e-mail to ABCNews.com.

The National Enquirer broke the Edwards story in July 2008. Eighteen months later, Edwards confessed that he fathered a child outside of his marriage.