Best of the States

AP Exclusive: NFL’s Saints allegedly do damage control for Catholic Church on abuse crisis

New York-based federal law enforcement reporter Jim Mustian never gives up on a story.

Sticking with a case he began covering at another news organization in another state more than two years ago, Mustian landed a jaw-dropping exclusive for the AP: That a trove of hundreds of confidential emails has surfaced allegedly showing executives of the NFL’s New Orleans Saints doing public relations damage control for the area’s Roman Catholic archdiocese amid its clergy sexual abuse crisis.

The story had an immediate, visceral impact with readers and earned praise from fellow journalists.

Mustian will continue to chip away at this story and, hopefully, reveal more about the Saints and their involvement with the church. But for now, Mustian’s sticktoitiveness and tough accountability reporting earns him this week’s Best of the States award.

Best of the Week — First Winner

AP gets ‘blockbuster’ scoop on China’s delay in warning of the coronavirus

What and when did authorities in China know about the coronavirus’ initial spread and did they react fast enough? Those have become burning questions as COVID-19 tears a deadly and destructive path across the globe.

Among the toughest to answer, too. 

The Associated Press cracked open China’s lockdown on information with an exclusive story – based on internal documents and expert testimony – revealing that top officials in Beijing knew about a likely pandemic, but held off on warning the public for at least six days – while tens of thousands attended a banquet in Wuhan and millions more travelled for Lunar New Year festivities.

The story’s byline – “By The Associated Press” – testified to the risks run by the reporter who secured and developed the major scoop.

For breaking through China’s tightly policed walls of information control about the critical first days of the pandemic, with a scoop secured in one of the world’s toughest media environments, the unnamed but not unsung AP reporter is this week’s Best of the Week laureate.

Best of the States

Surviving the coronavirus upheaval may depend on your paycheck – a tale of 2 families

California's Bay Area is full of extremes: poverty and wealth; homelessness and opulence; high-end industry and the service workers who support it. Those extremes matter when it comes to weathering the shutdown in response to the coronavirus.

 Jocelyn Gecker and Olga Rodriguez set out to show how that divide plays out, telling the stories of Rebecca Biernat, a San Francisco attorney, and Sonia Bautista, a hotel worker, and their families. With photographer Jeff Chiu they developed an intimate portrait of the two families – what they have in common and the differences in how they are adjusting to the shutdown.

 For doggedly seeking out the right subjects, overcoming distancing restrictions and expertly weaving together two tales to tell a deeper story about inequality amid turmoil, Gecker, Rodriguez and Chiu earn this week’s Best of the States award.

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

AP exclusive interview with world’s foremost collector of Picasso

convinced David Nahmad, a publicity-shy billionaire art dealer who has accumulated over decades the world’s largest private collection of works by Pablo Picasso, to throw open his luxury Monaco home for an exclusive and rare all-formats interview about why he is selling one of his paintings for charity. Nahmad had spoken briefly to a French radio station about raffling of “Nature Morte,” painted by Picasso in 1921, but Leicester proposed that for international audiences, the billionaire should speak exclusively to AP, surrounded by some of his art collection, estimated to be worth $3 billion. The story managed to elbow its way into the news agenda dominated by virus coverage, rising to No. 8 on the list of most-viewed AP stories.https://bit.ly/3dcJoQihttps://bit.ly/2Uo8T8Zhttps://bit.ly/2WyX2Yp

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Exploring hoop dreams and faith at Yeshiva University

spent hundreds of hours with the Yeshiva University basketball team as AP’s religion team looked at how Yeshiva navigates the world of college athletics while facing misperceptions of who they are as Jews – and even outright anti-Semitism, sometimes on the court. The New York-based trio delivered a deeply reported all-formats package as the Maccabees went on a historic run and won their conference championship. AP was there for the games, but also for classes, meals, family time, dorm time and a wedding. The relationship and trust built with the team became even more valuable as the team endures a new challenge: A Yeshiva student, not on the team, tested positive for the coronavirus, causing the team to be banned from a Baltimore hotel.https://bit.ly/2TMEulBhttps://bit.ly/3aOhckThttps://bit.ly/2U1DcSzhttps://bit.ly/3cVdIio

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

AP Exclusive: IOC member says 3 months to decide on Tokyo Olympics

landed an exclusive interview with Dick Pound, the senior member of the International Olympic Committee, changed the conversation around the Tokyo Olympics. After organizers had been saying for months that the Games would not be affected by the coronavirus, Pound spoke frankly about the risks facing the Olympics, estimating there is a three-month window to decide the fate of the Tokyo Games, which open July 24. The comments were picked up and analyzed by thousands of outlets, all of whom had to credit AP. https://bit.ly/2wwaQrs

Best of the Week — First Winner

With speed and smarts, AP Germany team dominates mass shooting coverage

As news of a racially motivated café shooting started trickling out shortly before midnight on Feb. 19, the AP team in Germany burst into action with an all-hands-on-desk effort that dominated coverage of this major story. 

AP’s success included a huge win on live video coordinated by Kerstin Sopke, brisk filing of the breaking story by Geir Moulson and Frank Jordans, and Michael Probst’s photos from the scene that landed on the front pages of major publications.

Their effort was supplemented by a strong effort from other corners of the AP as journalists interviewed survivors and members of the immigrant community, wrote about the rise of far-right violence in Germany and followed the written trail left by the killer. Play for the story was phenomenal. 

For their speed, smart news judgment and superior coordination that gave AP a massive lead on a big story as it broke, Probst, Moulson, Sopke and Jordans are AP’s Best of the Week winners.

Best of the States

AP crew expertly covers a wild and constantly shifting Daytona 500

In any year, coverage of the Daytona 500 is a major undertaking that presents challenges. NASCAR’s biggest event stretches nearly two weeks and story planning begins a month in advance. 

But this year the AP crew had to adjust on the fly as the story veered in multiple directions. First, President Donald Trump finalized a visit just 48 hours in advance. Then rain fell early in the race, eventually postponing the event until the following day. And finally, a lurid crash just short of the checkered flag resulted in a stunning finish followed by an agonizing wait for news on the condition of driver Ryan Newman.

The AP team never faltered, deftly handling everything Daytona threw at them with informed, precise reporting and outstanding images.

For constantly keeping the AP ahead during a wild weekend, writers Jenna Fryer, Dan Gelston and Mark Long, and photographers John Raoux and Chris O’Meara share this week’s Best of the States award.

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

NFL’s Saints accused of helping shape clergy abuse list

for advancing the story he broke a week earlier, now reporting exclusively on court filings claiming that work done for the area’s Roman Catholic archdiocese by the NFL’s New Orleans Saints went beyond “minimal” public relations work on sex abuse by clergy, and allegedly included helping to shape a list of credibly accused clergy that appears to be undercounted. Mustain also reported on a judge’s ruling that the AP can move forward with its case to have documents between the Saints and the archdiocese made public. https://bit.ly/3718pK7

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Reporter stays with the story; father and son reunited

followed up on his previous reporting about migrant David Xol, who was deported back to Guatemala after being separated from his son by border agents in May 2018. Merchant’s relationship-building paid off with a heads up when Xol was one of nine parents who won the exceedingly rare chance to return to the U.S., reuniting him with his son, now 9. AP produced an all-formats package on the emotional airport reunion in Los Angeles.https://bit.ly/2RVbtC0https://bit.ly/2t8xJ2Rhttps://bit.ly/2S4AbQi

Best of the Week — First Winner

AP investigation: Ukraine’s Zelenskiy pressured by Trump months before call

Desmond Butler and Michael Biesecker, global investigations reporters in Washington, wanted to fill out the timeline of the diplomatic scandal at the heart of House impeachment inquiry. While Biesecker worked sources in Washington, Butler traveled to Ukraine to meet with associates of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, and with other sources developed over years of investigating wrongdoing in the former Soviet Union.

What they learned moved the needle on a complex narrative — associates of the Ukrainian leader said that pressure from the Trump White House started much earlier than was known previously, dating from shortly after Zelenskiy’s election in April, and before he took office as president. 

The scoop was the latest in a series of breaking stories and exclusives by the pair that have defined coverage of the impeachment investigation and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s role in it.

For meticulous work that led to a major scoop and widened the horizons of the ongoing Ukraine-Trump story, Butler and Biesecker share AP’s Best of the Week award. 

Best of the Week — First Winner

AP breaks news of Soleimani killing; dominates all-formats coverage

The source’s initial tip seemed fairly run-of-the-mill for Baghdad: A late-night rocket attack hit the international airport.

But AP’s Baghdad correspondent Qassim Abdul-Zahra sensed something unusual was afoot. He alerted colleagues and kept digging, teasing out a name that set alarm bells ringing: Qassem Soleimani, Iran’s top general and one of the Middle East’s most powerful protagonists, might have been in the car. 

Soon, from three sources, came confirmation that Soleimani was dead. Regional news director Zeina Karam’s AP alert reached our customers well ahead of the competition and triggered a response by teams, across the region and beyond, that would maintain AP’s edge with all-formats coverage astounding in its breadth, speed and insight.

Usage in all formats was off the charts, both by AP customers and on social channels.

For standout work in a competitive tour de force, AP’s Middle East team of Qassim Abdul-Zahra, Zeina Karam, Jon Gambrell, Nasser Karimi, Ahmed Sami and Nasser Nasser share Best of the Week honors.

Best of the States

‘Sundays After’: Portraits of resilience in the wake of clergy abuse

Photographer Maye-E Wong wanted to find a new way to tell the stories of those who suffered from clergy abuse, emphasizing that they were survivors, not victims. 

Her plan: She would photograph them with a Polaroid camera, then soak the prints and release the thin fragile membranes that held the images. The images were imperfect – wrinkled and distressed – but they endure, a metaphor for the survivors they portrayed.

Wong and reporter Juliet Linderman traveled the country to interview and photograph survivors, spending days with them and listening to their stories. The result was a stunning presentation that set AP viewership records and earned praise from both the subjects and the public.

For an arresting package of inspired photography and sensitive, insightful reporting, Wong and Linderman receive this week’s Best of the States award.

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Exclusive interview with Greta Thunberg after Time honors

for the only international interview with teen climate activist Greta Thunberg after Time magazine named her Person of the Year. Thunberg’s team had been turning down interviews, but Jordans called a person traveling by car with Thunberg and asked her to pass the phone to Greta. Jordans recorded audio as he spoke to the teenager for several minutes about receiving the accolade, her experience of the past years and plans for the future – a scoop that received tremendous play on one of the top stories of the day. https://bit.ly/38OB9Id

Best of the Week — First Winner

How tramadol, touted as the safer opioid, became a 3rd world peril

It was supposed to be the safer opioid, a way to fight pain with little risk of addiction. That promise has meant much less regulation of tramadol than other opioids. And its relatively low cost has made tramadol the drug of choice in many developing countries, becoming what the United Nations calls “the other opioid crisis.”

National writer Claire Galofaro spent months researching the issue – but how to illustrate the story from a fresh perspective?

Galofaro turned to New Delhi-based correspondent Emily Schmall, who traveled to India’s Punjab state, where she talked to people struggling with addiction, visited a treatment center and gained unprecedented access to officials trying to stem the crisis. 

The deeply reported story, one of the top-read pieces on AP News, also delved into tramadol’s heavy toll in Africa, and its trafficking among terrorist groups. 

For their work exposing an aspect of the international opioid crisis that has received far less attention, Galofaro and Schmall win AP’s Best of the Week award.

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Unparalleled coverage of a devastating fire in India

for quick and commanding coverage of India’s worst fires in decades, where dozens of workers were trapped in a makeshift factory with little ventilation and only one way out. The team’s work beat not only international news organizations but also many local media, and included a detailed portrait of the tragedy, and the only agency live video coverage.https://bit.ly/2E9DkYLhttps://bit.ly/2qLlJmI

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

First AP/Frontline collaboration explores treatment of migrant children

for breaking the news that the U.S. government held a record 69,550 infants, children and teenagers in custody over the past year, published as part of a collaboration with PBS’s “Frontline.” The story and documentary were the result of a collaboration initiated by Burke and led by international investigative editor Ron Nixon. The joint project built on years of Burke’s work with Mendoza and many colleagues on the immigration beat team and in Latin America. Together, they contniued to press for access inside shelters, interview kids who had been detained, document the trauma risks, and garner interviews with officials responsible for the situation.https://bit.ly/35oq9yBhttps://bit.ly/2O5k4kKhttps://to.pbs.org/2s3fStf

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

AP launches ‘misinformation team’ to expose false info

members of AP’s first misinformation beat team focusing on explaining falsehoods, propaganda and conspiracy theories while exposing the creators of this material and their techniques for dissemination. The team launched with two strong international stories – one exposing a propaganda campaign around the Turkish invasion into northern Syria, the other providing a deep look at how tech companies are grappling with the threat of online misinformation ahead of December’s UK election.https://bit.ly/2QnszJAhttps://bit.ly/378Y3sY

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

AP interview: FC Barcelona president preparing for post-Messi era

for an exclusive interview, after months of negotiations with the club, with Josep Bartomeu, president of FC Barcelona. The story, in which Bartomeu talks about life after Lionel Messi, was prominently picked up internationally and by Spanish media. https://bit.ly/2pp6wqY

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

AP owns Spanish front pages with Barcelona march photos

for dominating coverage of a pro-Spanish demonstration in Barcelona that was splashed across the front pages of all four of Spain’s top newspapers in a highly unusual sweep of the photo play. Several competitive international agencies shared a crane for overhead photos of the rally, but Morenatti’s photos won decisively, this following two weeks of prominent photo play in Spanish and international media for AP’s team coverage of demonstrations both for and against the Catalan independence movement. https://bit.ly/2q5ertl