AP delivers the definitive account of the House select committee’s hearings in a rich, layered package.
An expansive all-formats package followed the arc of the House Jan. 6 committee’s eight public hearings, as Associated Press journalists based in Washington put together a comprehensive and compelling look at the committee’s evidence of U.S. democracy at the edge of a precipice on that day.
Preparation began weeks earlier with D.C.-based videographers Nathan Ellgren and Mike Pesoli researching hours of footage from both the day of the riot and the committee hearings, much of it previously unseen. Reporters Cal Woodward and Eric Tucker did similar research, mining hundreds of pages of transcripts to produce an elegantly written 3,000-word story.
From the outset, the reporters and video journalists were determined to avoid a bland, chronological retelling of the hearings. Instead they organized the package around two themes: the witnesses who said “no” to President Donald Trump’s efforts to undo the election, and the impact the president’s pressure campaign had on average Americans who bore the burden of it.
The team’s research helped focus on specific moments that captured the human impact of the events surrounding Jan. 6, including a team of mother-daughter election workers in Georgia falsely accused by Trump of election-night malfeasance when all they did was hand a mint to each other.
U.S. Capitol Police Sgt. Harry Dunn, right, and others react as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol holds its first public hearing at the Capitol to reveal the findings of a yearlong investigation, June 9, 2022.
AP Photo / Andrew Harnik
People gather in a park outside of the U.S. Capitol to watch the first in a series of hearings by the Jan. 6 House select committee reveals the results of its yearlong investigation, June 9, 2022.
AP Photo / Jose Luis Magana
Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., takes his seat as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol continues to reveal the findings of a yearlong investigation, June 13, 2022.
AP Photo / Andrew Harnik
Wandrea “Shaye” Moss, a former Georgia election worker, is comforted by her mother, Ruby Freeman, right, as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol holds a hearing at the Capitol, June 21, 2022. The mother and daughter who were election workers in Georgia brought the sense of danger into stark relief. They testified they feared even to say their names in public after President Trump falsely accused them of voter fraud.
AP Photo / Jacquelyn Martin
From left, U.S. Capitol Police Sgt. Aquilino Gonell, former Washington Metropolitan Police Department officer Michael Fanone, actor Sean Penn, Washington Metropolitan Police Department officer Daniel Hodges and U.S. Capitol Police Sgt. Harry Dunn listen as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol continues to reveal its findings of a yearlong investigation, June 23, 2022.
AP Photo / J. Scott Applewhite
Cassidy Hutchinson, former aide to Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, testifies before the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, describing what she was told about how former President Donald Trump reacted in his vehicle after being told he was not able to go to the Capitol from the Ellipse on Jan. 6, 2021.
AP Photo / Jacquelyn Martin
Vice Chair Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., listens as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol holds a hearing at the Capitol, June 16, 2022.
AP Photo / J. Scott Applewhite
Sarah Matthews, former White House deputy press secretary, is seated before the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, July 21, 2022.
AP Photo / Patrick Semansky
An image of a makeshift gallows on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, is shown as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol holds a hearing, June 9, 2022.
AP Photo / J. Scott Applewhite
Serena Liebengood, widow of Capitol Police officer Howie Liebengood, cries on Capitol Hill as a video of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol is played during a public hearing of the House select committee investigating the attack, June 9, 2022.
AP Photo / Andrew Harnik
Besides a comprehensive account of the hearings, the mainbar story was replete with clever touches — the reporters added up the number of words in the eight transcripts and measured the length against famous literature that touches on the same themes. The hearings were longer, for example, than George Orwell’s dystopian “1984.”
The video and photo teams produced a combination of 40 minutes of video content, including 11 explainer packages on key moments from the hearings, and a 14-minute comprehensive video timeline from election night 2020 to the insurrection. The videos featured on-camera analysis delivered expertly by Darlene Superville, Farnoush Amiri, Mary Clare Jalonick, Lisa Mascaro, Jacquelyn Martin, Almaz Abedje, Rick Gentilo and Donna Starddard. AP Radio correspondent Sagar Meghani provided up-to-the-minute audio reports.
The text and video were complemented by photos from J. Scott Applewhite, Alex Brandon, Manny Ceneta, Andrew Harnik, Carolyn Kaster, Jacquelyn Martin, Patrick Semansky and Susan Walsh, curated by editors Wayne Partow, Jennifer Kane and Jon Elswick. Peter Hamlin, Dario Lopez and Raghu Vadarevu further elevated the package with animated illustrations and engaging presentation.
As a result, the combination of smart planning, collaboration, sourcing, creativity and beat expertise combined for a truly all-formats package that could serve as a historical resource for future study of the House committee's investigation of the election lie that gave rise to an insurrection.
AP ILLUSTRATION / PETER HAMLIN, RAGHU VADAREVU
For sweeping, distinctive multiformat coverage, the team of Tucker, Woodward, Ellgren and Pesoli, supported by a host of others who covered the insurrection and the hearings, earns AP’s Best of the Week — Second Winner.
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