Best of the States

Teamwork, enterprise deliver deep coverage on fatal police shooting of Chicago teen

When Chicago police released the body camera video of an officer fatally shooting a 13-year-old boy in an alley, AP staffers in Chicago and across the AP sprang into action with aggressive reporting, sharp enterprise follow-ups and thoughtful standards discussions about how to responsibly portray the gruesome incident for photo and video clients.

The end result was three days of distinctive spot and enterprise coverage on a story that resonated with audiences around the world, especially with renewed focus on police violence in the midst of the Derek Chauvin murder trial.

For comprehensive coverage providing depth, detail and context on the shooting, the all-formats team of Michael Tarm, Don Babwin, Sara Burnett, Kat Stafford, Dave Bauder, Shafkat Anowar, Robert Bumsted and Derek Karikari shares this week’s Best of the States award.

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

AP: WHO knew of sex misconduct by personnel in Congo

revealed that, contrary to World Health Organization claims, WHO senior management did know about at least two cases of doctors accused of sex abuse and misconduct during the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, but did not fire or even apparently discipline them.Health and science reporter Cheng advanced the story by putting names, for the first time, to the implicated doctors and a senior manager. She discovered that WHO managers even witnessed an agreement in which a WHO doctor agreed to pay a young woman he had allegedly impregnated.While Cheng worked with her sources, Congo stringer Kudra Maliro tracked down several alleged victims of both doctors, adding text and images. The investigation was based on interviews with dozens of WHO staffers, Ebola officials in Congo, private emails, legal documents and recordings of internal meetings obtained by the AP.The story drew strong and immediate international response. Paula Donovan, co-director of a group that tracks sex abuse, wrote: “Never ... have I seen such a detailed exposé containing so many unanswerable indictments against so many UN personnel. You’ve broken real ground here.”https://aplink.news/f39https://aplink.video/pk5

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Creative storytelling brings new life to spectacle of cicadas

teamed up, using creativity, tenacity and multiformat collaboration to bring a fresh perspective to a widely covered natural phenomenon happening every 17 years.Borenstein, an AP science writer, had done cicada stories before and knew the timing would be tricky. The bugs emerge only when the temperature is right, usually in mid-May. He and Ritzell, an animator and video journalist on the Health and Science team, began hours of Zoom interviews with bug scientists in mid-March.Meanwhile, Washington-based photographer Carolyn Kaster made it her mission to document the bugs she called “beautifully weird.” She had first encountered the Brood X cicadas 17 years ago in Pennsylvania and knew they would be a challenging subject — if she could find them. Kaster reached out to an EPA scientist and photographed undergraduate students who were sticking thermometers into the ground to find the places where cicadas would soon be emerging. She found some nymphs that she photographed as they matured, and for a week she went out every night looking for mature bugs and their telltale red eyes.Adding a key element, Health & Science video journalist Kathy Young and Ritzel produced an animated video explainer on the life cycle of cicadas. The animation, guest-narrated by Allen Breed, was built around the colorful soundbites of a University of Maryland entomologist describing the cicadas’ life cycle.The team’s all-formats package was timed perfectly, just as the bugs were starting to emerge in some places. Borenstein and Kaster followed up several days later with an illustrated FAQ explainer on cicadas.The package created buzz on social media and was among the week’s most-viewed stories on AP News, while the animation and the newsroom video were used globally, including South Korea and India among others.https://aplink.news/pjlhttps://aplink.video/vkphttps://aplink.news/0ab

Best of the Week — First Winner

Resolute AP crew in Chad, where not a single shot has been administered, highlights vaccine inequity

In Chad to cover the sudden death of the country’s longtime president, the AP team of West Africa Bureau Chief Krista Larson, Nigeria-based video journalist Lekan Oyekanmi and photographer Sunday Alamba decided to look at the COVID situation in a country that has yet to administer its first shot. Political unrest made the assignment far more challenging, with police on the hunt for journalists. Alamba and Oyekanmi had already been detained for eight hours and warned not to venture out into the street again.

After days of prodding, the team was granted just a brief interview with medical staff in a hospital conference room. But the all-formats crew pressed the case to see the COVID ward for themselves, eventually winning access. Accounts of bravery and deprivation among overwhelmed medical staff, and the images shot by Alamba and Oyekanmi, speak volumes, highlighting a deep global inequity despite promises by wealthy nations to help vaccinate the world.

For intrepid coverage in the harshest of reporting environments, Larson, Alamba and Oyekanmi win AP’s Best of the Week award.

Best of the States

Nimble AP reporting reveals Alabama trooper charged in child rape hid alleged misconduct at FBI

In a classic case of keeping an open mind during reporting, AP’s Jim Mustian and Kim Chandler started out reporting one story, but found themselves reporting exclusively that an Alabama state trooper, arrested on charges he raped an 11-year-old girl, had used a forged letter and lied on his application to get hired after being removed from the FBI — also on serious allegations of sexual misconduct.

To federal law enforcement reporter Mustian, this initially appeared as yet another case of the FBI allowing an accused agent to quietly move on with his career. But just as he was about to publish, the FBI said the bureau letter Christopher Bauer submitted to Alabama authorities when he was hired was “not legitimate.” Meanwhile, Chandler, Montgomery statehouse reporter, tracked down Bauer’s application for the trooper job, in which he said he was still employed by the FBI and had never been forced to resign because of disciplinary action.

This had become the story of a former agent, and perhaps others, falsifying his record. The piece was among the week’s top stories on AP News, with nearly 200,000 pageviews.

For deep reporting that followed the story wherever it took them, Mustian and Chandler earn this week’s Best of the States award.

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Outspoken Glenn Close opens up to AP about ‘loser’ label

scored a revealing interview with actress Glenn Close, who was candid about journalists and others who have focused more on her Oscar losses than on celebrating her eight career nominations. Fekadu, AP entertainment journalist, conducted the interview on Zoom for both text and video. Close addressed the Academy Awards issue, saying: "First of all, I don't think I’m a loser ... who in (the best supporting actress category) is a loser?” And in reference to her critics she emphatically ended with: “I say, (expletive) them!”The quotes were widely picked up by publications from Vanity Fair to the New York Daily News, while other outlets ran AP’s full story. Clients using the interview video included USA Today, MSN, Entertainment Tonight, Fox and ABC.https://tinyurl.com/3ye74rbwhttps://tinyurl.com/yrc3yxye

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Beat reporting uncovers U.S. Catholic bishops’ plan to confront Biden

reported exclusively that a group of U.S. Catholic bishops was working to pressure President Joe Biden to stop taking Communion due to his public advocacy for abortion rights.The story came together after Crary, New York-based national writer, decided to update his reporting on the uneasy relationship between the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and Biden, only the second Catholic president and the first to publicly support abortion rights in contradiction of church teaching. Early on in his reporting, Crary learned that the USCCB’s doctrine committee had been assigned to prepare a document addressing Biden. Using his contacts, Crary was able to arrange interviews with two archbishops, who made clear for the first time their goal to publicly confront Biden and urge that he refrain from receiving Communion. https://bit.ly/3elE27U

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

AP visual journalists lead the way at a one-of-a-kind Oscars

navigated issues of access, multiple locations and complex logistics in covering this year’s one-of-a-kind Academy Awards ceremony, altered from top to bottom by the pandemic.The event was one of the largest photo pools AP has ever run. AP’s remarkable access came as the result of years of relationship building with the film academy, which trusted AP to not only shoot photos of its marquee event, but also distribute those images to news outlets around the globe.Under the leadership of Kaufman, assistant director of photography, and with a workflow developed largely by photo editor Munoz, the team expedited some 1,500 still images to 11 members of the pool. Meanwhile, in London, Jankovic coordinated photographers and editors handling the Oscars’ global satellite locations — from Sydney to Stockholm to Kilkenny, Ireland, and points in between. Success meant assembling a team of AP staffers, including a team of 10 editors — most off-site due to pandemic restrictions — who quickly edited, captioned and transmitted the images. In addition, at the academy’s request, video journalist Turner shot the Oscars’ pool fashion feed – a key position that is highly valuable to clients looking for red carpet looks and unscripted moments.Bottom line: If you saw a photo from the red carpet, or a winner clutching the coveted statuette, chances are it was shot by the AP. The images were used in countless tweets, online stories and on dozens of newspaper front pages, notably above-the-fold play for shots of “Nomadland’s” best picture winners by Pizzello, who also authored a “Virus Diary” with his reflecions on being an entertainment photographer during the pandemic.https://bit.ly/3vpV8HDhttps://bit.ly/3gOI1eY

Best of the States

A photographer’s affecting portrait of Korean American seniors, fearful amid anti-Asian violence

The Koreatown area of Los Angeles can be a challenging place to report — many residents are hesitant to speak to the press. That makes what Los Angeles-based photographer Jae Hong pulled off that much more impressive. 

Hong, a Korean American who moved to LA as a teenager, had recently spent a year on assignment in Tokyo. When he returned to the U.S., he was astonished by the increased aggression he saw toward Asian Americans, who were being blamed by some for COVID-19. 

After much outreach and many conversations with the local Korean community, he found a few families willing to let him into their lives. The end result — Hong’s somber photos and poignant text — is a compelling portrait of a community experiencing very real fear amid attacks targeting Asians. 

For timely, revealing enterprise reporting in both text and photos, Jae Hong wins this week’s Best of the States award.

Best of the Week — First Winner

Chauvin trial verdict, a Tigray refugee family: Diverse coverage exemplifies AP at its best

From major breaking news in the U.S. to unmatched international enterprise reporting, two very different entries — worlds apart but united by excellence — produce a rare joint winner for AP’s Best of the Week.

First, AP’s teamwork delivered unmatched breaking and explanatory cross-format coverage around the verdict in the Derek Chauvin trial, a case that framed the conversation on race and policing. Then, the trio of Cara Anna, Nariman El-Mofty and Mohaned Awad produced a riveting package on a Tigray father’s harrowing journey with his newborn twins, a stark illustration of the devastating war in Ethiopia’s Tigray region.

For powerful journalism that defines the range and depth of AP’s global coverage, the all-formats teams behind this compelling work share AP’s Best of the Week honors.

Best of the Week — First Winner

Unique AP visual investigation reveals Myanmar's junta using bodies to terrorize civilians

The video was startling: As a motorcycle carrying three men speeds down a city street in Myanmar, a soldier traveling in the back of a pickup truck opens fire. A man falls to the ground, mortally wounded, while the other two run away. 

Investigative reporters Robin McDowell and Margie Mason found that the video was one of many seeming to show the military firing at civilians indiscriminately in the wake of February’s coup. They also noticed that security forces appear to go out of their way to mutilate and drag bodies in the street, seemingly to terrorize the populace. The pair teamed up with the Human Rights Center Investigations Lab at the University of California, Berkeley, applying cutting-edge image analysis to thousands of social media posts and images online to reveal how the junta in Myanmar was using the bodies as tools of terror, according to human rights activists. 

With important contributions by Southeast Asia news director Kiko Rosario, and video by Manuel Valdes, the piece received more than 53,000 views on AP platforms.

For finding a way to analyze visual data from one of the world’s most secretive countries and presenting it in a rich and compelling multiformat narrative, McDowell, Mason, Rosario and Valdes earn AP’s Best of the Week award.

Best of the Week — First Winner

One shot: AP photographers reflect on covering the pandemic, and the image that most affected them

Since the start of the pandemic, AP photographers have been on the front lines of coverage, taking on risks to bring the world scenes of struggle, death, comfort and hope. And in many ways the images had a profound impact on the photographers themselves.

So as the world approached another grim pandemic milestone of 3 million deaths, New York photo editor Alyssa Goodman asked a group of 15 photographers from 13 countries to each select the one image from their virus coverage that affected them most, and describe why.  

The resulting package, elevated by the elegant writing of Rome reporter Nicole Winfield, offers compelling insight into the emotional impact of bearing witness and documenting the pandemic.

For adding a new and creative dimension to some of AP’s most deeply moving photography of the coronavirus pandemic, Goodman, Winfield and this dedicated team of photojournalists — representing their AP colleagues worldwide — earn AP’s Best of the Week honors. 

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

AP confirms details of riot timeline; Pence: ‘Clear the Capitol’

used deep source work to confirm a fascinating timeline of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. The Washington bureau has been breaking news constantly on the Jan. 6 attack, but when homeland security reporter Ben Fox was handed a declassified goldmine, everything changed. The multipage Pentagon timeline laid out stark details about the insurrection that no one knew — even after a series of public hearings. Among the findings: Vice President Mike Pence was the one behind the scenes working to clear the Capitol, President Donald Trump was nowhere to be found and the Pentagon had so underestimated the threat that personnel were literally running from room to room trying to figure out how to manage the increasing chaos, while top lawmakers were begging for help.The AP team set out to confirm the details before publication, digging into their networks of sources and working together to parse the story out. They received quiet assurances that the timeline was accurate. The result was an exclusive narrative that set the AP far ahead of other news outlets. MSNBC did an entire on-air segment based on AP’s reporting, the story trended on Twitter, and it was AP’s most-used story of the week, still attracting readership. https://bit.ly/3ecOSfw

Best of the Week — First Winner

Meticulous planning, near-flawless execution put AP ahead of the pack on Prince Philip coverage

The AP team in London had been preparing its coverage of Prince Philip’s death for years to ensure when the moment came, everyone would be ready. That exceptional planning laid the foundation for lightning handling and a major win when Philip passed on Friday.

The preparation included multiple revisions of the main obituaries, filing plans for all formats and a strategy for how the newsroom and editorial support teams would communicate to customers. It all paid off on Friday when AP picked up rumors of Philip’s death. U.K. news director Susie Blann confirmed with her sources and immediately let the wider team know. When official word came via email from the palace, the all-formats coverage team of more than 25 individuals in the United Kingdom, Europe and the United States was poised for action. 

From the Flash alert two minutes after the email confirmation, AP was incredibly fast with the news: text, photos, live and edited video, all tailored to customers who depend on and expect this coverage when it matters. 

For exceptional, nearly flawless performance across the AP on one of the biggest stories thus far this year, Susie Blann, Martin Cleaver, Bridget Jones, Anne Marie Belgrave, Samira Becirovic, Jill Lawless, Naomi Koppel, Danica Kirka, Sarah DiLorenzo and the international royal coverage team earn AP’s Best of the Week honors.

Best of the States

AP team embeds in West Virginia city seeing a resurgence of addiction amid the pandemic

As the COVID-19 pandemic killed more than a half-million Americans, it also quietly inflamed what had already been one of the country’s greatest public health crises: addiction. 

To tell that story, a multiformat AP team — writer Claire Galofaro, photographer David Goldman and video journalist Mike Householder — spent time in Huntington, West Virginia, exploring the resurgence of addiction in a community that had made progress against drug abuse. The AP team embedded with the city’s Quick Response team for a week, providing a unique window into the suffering those with addiction have endured as the pandemic brought despair and cut off access to support systems and health care resources.

The evocative package resonated with readers, and the story’s main subject said she was “ecstatic” over how well the story captured the world she sees every day.

For sensitive and compelling coverage that furthers the AP’s efforts to explore the rippling consequences of COVID-19, the team of Galofaro, Goldman and Householder wins this week’s Best of the States award.

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

AP reveals details of Trump bid to release hostages in Syria

combined source work and on-the-record reporting to reveal details of a secret trip to Syria taken by two Trump administration officials in a last-ditch effort to secure the release of kidnapped journalist Austin Tice and other U.S. hostages before the U.S. presidential election. Homeland security reporter Fox used years of source development to land the first on-the-record interview with one of the officials who made the risky trip to Damascus, while Tucker and Lee, national security and diplomatic reporters respectively, used their own sourcing to corroborate key details with current and former U.S. officials.The story was the most definitive account to date of the secretive meeting and revealed how the talks were stymied by significant Syrian demands and by the lack of information the Syrians offered about Tice’s fate or whereabouts. It also revealed how the U.S. government, in an effort to build goodwill, had an ally in the region offer assistance for the cancer treatment of the wife of Syrian President Bashar Assad. https://bit.ly/3gikAKK

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Persistence pays off with scoop on U.S. plan to share vaccines

scored an exclusive, on-the-record interview about U.S. plans to share 60 million doses of vaccine with the world.Miller, who has turned COVID reporting into a fulltime beat at the White House, repeatedly prodded officials on a matter of keen global interest — an explanation for why the U.S. wasn’t sharing more of its vaccine supplies with the rest of the world. Just days after Miller had teamed up with reporters around the globe for a story on the growing calls for the U.S. to start sharing doses with poorer countries, the White House responded to Miller’s latest request with a promise: “Do we have some news to share with you.” Ninety minutes later, Miller was on the phone with COVID-19 coordinator Jeff Zients and his deputies who outlined plans to share millions of doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine.AP had the story exclusively, with the only on-the-record comments from Zients. Other major news organizations scrambled to match the news, some with anonymous sourcing. Miller’s scoop scored the most use by AP customers for the day. https://bit.ly/3vME9Q6

Best of the States

Only on AP: A report of college rape, a Facebook admission years later and a woman’s fight for justice

“So I raped you.” 

That message on Facebook, years after Shannon Keeler left college, sent her back to the night as a freshman that changed her life. It also was the basis for her continued fight for justice, as well as this exclusive, powerful examination of campus sexual assault. AP’s Maryclaire Dale, a legal affairs reporter in Philadelphia, and video journalist Allen Breed interviewed Keeler and others, including a student who befriended Keeler on the night of the 2013 attack. That woman, Katayoun Amir-Aslani, told her story, too: She was raped later, by a different man.

The deeply reported all-formats package sheds light on often unreported college rapes, and the systemic obstacles students like Keeler face in their search for justice when they do report. The story drew major attention on AP News, where it was the most-read story for days. Other media rushed to match it, and Keeler has since told her story on network TV.

For sensitive and insightful reporting on a system that one of the victims describes as “broken,” Dale and Breed receive this week’s Best of the States award.

Best of the Week — First Winner

AP Exclusive: Investigative reporter obtains bodycam video of Ronald Greene’s deadly arrest

When Ronald Greene died in 2019, Louisiana State Police troopers initially blamed the Black man’s death on injuries from a crash at the end of a high-speed chase, then later said Greene became unresponsive in a struggle with troopers and died on his way to the hospital.

For the most part, that was all the public would know about the case, until AP’s Jim Mustian took up the story. Since he began reporting nine months ago, he’s broken a string of stories revealing there was more to the story. But Mustian always knew he needed to get his hands on one crucial piece of evidence: video.

This past week, Mustian did just that. In the most explosive break yet in the case, Mustian obtained body camera footage that showed Greene repeatedly apologizing and pleading for mercy as troopers jolted him with stun guns, put him in a choke hold, punched him and dragged him by his ankle shackles. The story led national newscasts and websites, and fronted newspapers across the country, with credit to AP’s reporting and the video, again and again.

This scoop was the work of one dogged investigative reporter who never stopped believing that the world should know what really happened to Ronald Greene. For that we honor Jim Mustian with AP’s Best of the Week award.

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

AP pair tells of woman’s remorse at exposing her father to COVID

captured in a poignant story what thousands of people around the world are living with — the guilt and remorse of believing they inadvertently infected a loved one who died of COVID-19.One of those feeling responsibility is Michelle Pepe, traveled from Boston to Florida for her mother’s 80th birthday In March 2020, just as the pandemic bloomed in the U.S. Pepe believes she gave the coronavirus to her father, Bernie Rubin, who died weeks later.The intimate story, eloquently told in all formats by New York’s Henao and Wardarski, members of AP’s Religion team, resonated with AP customers and readers at home and abroad, with many sharing their own stories and fears on social media. Pepe, featured in the story, thanked the pair in an email and said she was inundated with requests from broadcasters to tell her story, which might help people in similar circumstances. But she hadn't watched the whole AP video yet, saying: “I need to prep myself.”https://bit.ly/3uRcpcbhttps://bit.ly/3gb16WK