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
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
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 a followup to an earlier AP investigation identifying a Minnesotan as a former Nazi SS commander suspected in a massacre; the story reported that Poland has asked for the arrest of the 98-year-old. http://www.startribune.com/poland-confir…
With the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol under siege by Russian forces, two courageous AP journalists, Germany-based video journalist Mstyslav Chernov and Kyiv photographer Evgeniy Maloletka, have been out in the streets, day in and day out, virtually alone in chronicling the city’s fall into chaos, despair and utter isolation, and the suffering of the civilian population.
Driving a van with windows blown out by explosions and filing their video and photos when they can establish communications, the pair has been the world’s only eyes on a key city that is suffering at the hands of the Russian offensive. Their images and words have riveted the world’s attention.
For harrowing reporting from a besieged city that would go unseen without their unflinching courage, we are honored to award the pair AP’s Best of the Week — First Winner.
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
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
How are you guaranteed to get an exclusive if and when researchers locate Japanese ships sunken during the World War II Battle of Midway?
One sure way is to be the only journalist accompanying researchers aboard a vessel in the middle of nowhere in the Pacific. That’s exactly what Hawaii correspondent Caleb Jones did, delivering two exclusive packages on the discovery of warships in northwestern Hawaii, first by convincing the search company to invite only the AP, and then singlehandedly producing the all-formats content from the research ship.
For successfully pitching AP’s reach, then following up with strong storytelling that led to worldwide exclusives, Caleb Jones wins this week’s Best of the States.
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 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 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
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
turned a reader’s polite complaint into an engaging mystery story of 17th century piracy. Amateur historian Jim Bailey questioned why AP had run an item on a 1796 penny found in a Maine churchyard. The coin was not significant but, he added, he had found one that was. The tip put Kole and Senne on the trail of ancient Arabian coins unearthed around New England that were traced to Henry Every, an English pirate whose crew raped, murdered and pillaged in 1695, making the captain the planet’s most-wanted man. Kole interviewed historians and archaeologists who said Bailey’s discovery — a 1693 Yemeni coin found with a metal detector in a pick-your-own fruit orchard — indeed was significant and that it provided evidence that the subject of the world’s first manhunt did not just vanish into the wind after plundering a ship carrying Muslim pilgrims home from a pilgrimage to Mecca — he and his crew may have spent time in colonial New England spending their loot. Bailey found documents showing that the way the pirates hid out was by posing as slave traders, then a “legitimate” profession in Newport, Rhode Island.Kole's story rocketed to the top of the news cycle on the day it was published, getting more clicks than any other story on apnews.com. https://bit.ly/2Ov95UV
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
More than 600 Inupiat Natives live in the village of Shishmaref, just a few miles from the Arctic Circle, watching climate change slowly shrink their small Alaskan island home. In early October, reporter Luis Andres Henao, video journalist Jessie Wardarski and photographer Jae Hong visited the village to document how the warming world inexorably threatens their way of life.
With advance outreach, and tactful overtures after their arrival, the journalists earned the trust of residents and civic leaders who have sometimes been wary of visitors. The ultimate result: a moving tribute to the villagers’ resilience and community spirit, rendered in striking visuals and poignant, insightful text.
The package — the first major look at how Shishmaref is determined to stay put as long as possible — earned prominent online display by major news outlets in the U.S. and abroad, including Spanish and French translations.
For an all-formats project vividly evoking the tenacity of a Native village threatened by climate change, the team of Henao, Wardarski and Hong is AP’s Best of the Week — First Winner.
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 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
Rarely is the difference so stark between news organizations that subscribe to the AP and those that don’t. That’s down to the tireless efforts of AP staffers around the world who have reported, edited, planned, provisioned and advised to make our coverage of Ukraine truly stellar. And it’s especially true in the coverage of a single city that has seen some of the war’s worst horrors.AP’s Germany-based video journalist Mstyslav Chernov, photographer Evgeniy Maloletka and freelance producer Vasilisa Stepanenko have been the only international journalists to chronicle the tragedies of Mariupol. The team was recognized with last week’s Best of the Week award, and their unflinching coverage continued, the world riveted not only by their presence, but by their stunning journalism. Amid the chaos, they have found stories so moving — and told them so compellingly — that it’s impossible to tell the broader story of Ukraine without them.Usage for the work has been extraordinary. “Their images,” wrote Nick Schifrin of PBS NewsHour, “are defining this war.”For courageous, must-have coverage from the heart of the world’s biggest story, the team of Chernov, Maloletka and Stepanenko is AP’s Best of the Week — First Winner.
recognized news when they heard it. The White House reporters jumped on President Joe Biden's off-the-cuff warnings about nuclear “Armageddon,” made during a sleepy fundraiser, and set the news agenda, immediately moving a news alert followed by a 200-word story that rocketed around the globe ahead of all competitors.Read more