June 29, 2018
Beat of the Week
(Honorable Mention)
We were warned: 30 years of global warming
for their in-depth, analytical package looking at 30 years of global warming. https://bit.ly/2yU6NWF
for their in-depth, analytical package looking at 30 years of global warming. https://bit.ly/2yU6NWF
Joan Lowy, transportation reporter, Washington, D.C., and Emily Schmall, correspondent, Fort Worth, Texas, for scoring significant news beats after a hot air balloon caught fire, killing 16.
for telling the story of how the war in Afghanistan came home to a hamlet in upstate New York. The town celebrated their homegrown warrior, Army Sgt. James Johnston – who was only 7 when the war that claimed his life began – and the soldier’s young widowed bride Krista and their unborn infant.https://bit.ly/33GF1rfhttps://bit.ly/35J7bUwhttps://bit.ly/31nVb7i
reported a strong inequality-themed story on how government agencies were failing to publicize coronavirus health alerts in Spanish. The story focused on how Arizona, with 30% of its residents Hispanic, has no information on its state health webpage in Spanish and the health department was still translating coronavirus updates. https://bit.ly/2Jk6rv6
exclusively broke a story with both irony and foreboding: Scientists who set out to study the impact of climate change on a massive Antarctic glacier are being largely thwarted because global warming has produced an iceberg and attracted sea ice, preventing the ships from reaching their destination. At least for now, the multinational expedition is unable to reach Thwaites, the so-called Doomsday Glacier the size of Florida that is melting quickly.Because COVID concerns meant journalists could not join the research party, Washington-based climate and science reporter Bornstein developed sources among the scientists. One of them agreed to try a Zoom interview from the expedition and that interview was packed with news. Borenstein also reached out to other scientists; the resulting all-formats package played widely in the U.S. and overseas.Read more
for exclusively reporting that priceless Jewish artifacts, including ancient parchment Torahs from one of the world’s oldest synagogues, have gone missing amid the tumult of war. https://bit.ly/2Mg3YkC
got unique access in the U.S. to hours of interviews with one of the few high-level elite Russian security officers around President Vladimir Putin to defect.Read more.
made AP the first major news organization to take a serious look at readiness in the countries most likely to be affected, as fighting around Ukraine’s nuclear power plants and Russia’s threats to use nuclear weapons reawaken nuclear fears in Europe. Some of Ukraine’s neighboring countries have started distributing potassium iodide pills, and officials are preparing old Soviet-era nuclear shelters for possible use.After two weeks spent persuading authorities to give AP’s journalists access to the underground shelters, the team reported comprehensively and responsibly — and with strong visuals — on European readiness for a possible nuclear attack. The team was careful to avoid sensationalizing the coverage or raising unnecessary fear.Read more
for sizing up the latest “Star Wars” film and delivering, within hours of seeing it, a review that gave the AP and its audience a thorough take on one of the year’s biggest releases. The story received more than 50,000 views in its first 24 hours. Spoiler alert, Coyle found it “spirited, hectic and ultimately forgettable.” https://bit.ly/2sZRauk
for an AP investigation that found thousands more civilian deaths caused by the U.S.-led coalition in Mosul than earlier acknowledged. http://bit.ly/2phgQ3a
for scoring AP’s latest scoop on the unfolding mystery in Cuba by being first to report a series of U.S. actions in retaliation for what are being called health “attacks" on U.S. diplomats. http://bit.ly/2xUd42P
for turning a spot story on YouTube’s removal of hundreds of thousands of videos from Syria into a wider look at how Syrian activists are scrambling to rescue their history. http://bit.ly/2xScoLJ
for examining the unusually harsh and coarse language used in the presidential campaign, especially by Donald Trump and his supporters, and its potential for long-term harm to the U.S. Quoting authorities on political speech and electoral history, he reported that incivility reached new lows in 2016 and may signal worse to come. http://apne.ws/2eDOyKO
for one of the first published interviews that Warren Beatty has given in years on the occasion of his new Howard Hughes biopic, "The Rules Don't Apply."
http://bayareane.ws/2cFXsWA
for being first with the final death toll in an Oakland warehouse fire, for using social media reporting to quickly tell the unusual story of the warehouse and its creator, and for drawing troubling parallels with a Rhode Island fire. http://bit.ly/2hjnIaH http://abcn.ws/2gxSGbm https://yhoo.it/2hu48H1 http://abcn.ws/2hqldE8
for her exclusive interview with Aretha Franklin, in which the Queen of Soul vented her frustrations with former friend Dionne Warwick. http://apne.ws/2q2D0G4
for scoring an exclusive by obtaining an advanced look at a previously unseen handwritten letter written by Albert Einstein in which the renowned scientist warned about the rise of anti-Semitism in Germany more than a decade before the Nazis seized power.https://bit.ly/2zQdd6phttps://bit.ly/2PuxGIV
for using dozens of public records requests to break news on the FBI’s efforts to warn American colleges and universities that they’re vulnerable to economic and industrial espionage by China. Emails obtained by AP underscore the extent of U.S. concerns that universities, as recruiters of foreign talent and incubators of cutting-edge research, present a particularly inviting target for espionage. https://bit.ly/2ovvbtc
using the Bambuser live video app on his iPhone for the first time, transmitted live footage of Elizabeth Warren showing up to vote on Super Tuesday. His video was so good, both NBC and ABC used it, and ABC – which had its own camera following Warren – switched to Binkley's shot midfeed. https://bit.ly/2TJ0XzV
Since the conflict in the Tigray region of Ethiopia broke out seven months ago, news coverage has necessarily focused on those who fled the region. And AP journalists have delivered that coverage since November. But few journalists could reach areas under the control of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, the party of Tigray’s now-fugitive leaders. Access was refused by the Ethiopian military. Until now.
AP’s Kampala, Uganda, correspondent Rodney Muhumuza and the Nairobi, Kenya-based team of Khaled Kazziha, Ben Curtis and Desmond Tiro made it through to the town of Hawzen with determination, teamwork and skill.
Once there, and knowing the risks, the all-formats team limited themselves to less than an hour in the town, during which they reported exclusively on the TPLF fighters then occupying it. Hours after the journalists left, government troops shelled the town and recaptured it. The team later interviewed displaced victims of the conflict, including child amputees. The resulting multiformat story used the Hawzen as an example of the challenges facing Ethiopian authorities in the region.
For smart, careful and courageous reporting to become the first outside journalists since the conflict started to interview fighters loyal to the TPLF, Muhumuza, Curtis, Kazziha and Tiro earn AP’s Best of the Week award.