Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Focus on COVID-19 patients for testing treatments

spent weeks searching for patients to put faces on two clinical trials testing COVID-19 treatments: One was a coronavirus survivor who opted to donate her blood for research; the other was a doctor turned patient who decided to join a study testing an experimental biotech drug. The stories were part of AP’s ongoing effort to tell the behind-the-scenes stories of people affected by the pandemic.https://bit.ly/2JQKbcwhttps://bit.ly/2XlHOWQ

Best of the States

Inside the Navajo Nation as it endures the coronavirus outbreak

If the Navajo Nation were its own state, it would have the second highest per-capita rate of coronavirus cases in the United States, trailing only New York. 

AP’s Felicia Fonseca, one of the preeminent reporters covering Native issues for any news organization, and photographer Carolyn Kaster reported from the heart of the crisis. Donning full protective gear and a healthy measure of courage, they documented families, doctors and volunteers, while national writer Tim Sullivan added further reporting and masterful writing assistance from afar. 

The story and photos capture the vast beauty of the land and the intimate grief of the people, including one family that has lost four members to the virus. The package played heavily in the Southwest U.S. and was among AP’s most downloaded and viewed for several days.

For a revealing look at a Native community in the midst of the health crisis, Fonseca, Kaster and Sullivan share this week’s Best of the States honors.

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Finance reports reveal North Dakota GOP infighting

used campaign finance reports to document North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum is helping bankroll a political action campaign aimed at unseating a powerful legislator and fellow Republican who had frustrated some of Burgum’s goals. Burgum was elected in 2016 as an outsider businessman, and has long clashed with the state’s Republican old guard, including House Appropriations Chairman Jeff Delzer. https://bit.ly/2LM84CL

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

AP interview: Mom threatened by crowd leaned on faith

gave AP the first national interview with a black woman who faced down an armed all-white group – led by a sheriff’s deputy – that tried to force its way into her home. The woman, Monica Shepard, had talked to two local television stations but was avoiding further media contact. Foreman, however, felt there was a deeper story to be told.

He eventually reached Shepard and her son through their attorney, arranging for an online interview to capture video. “I was vulnerable. They had the crowd. They had the weapons. I had nothing,” Shepard told Foreman. “I was standing before a crowd, but I had the faith.” Foreman’s compelling story gave AP the beat on other media that were trying to interview the family, and was used even by outlets that had previously covered the incident.https://bit.ly/2Xfxtdnhttps://bit.ly/2zl3sB5

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Even Trump claims surprise after AP bombshell on Flynn case

scooped everyone with news that the Justice Department was moving for dismissal of the case against Michael Flynn, President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser who had pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI. Balsamo, acting on a tip, worked sources and obtained exclusive access to court documents showing the case was being dropped, before they were even filed in court. Tucker, AP’s Mueller investigation expert, drafted the story, pulling together details and information from other sources on how this case could have ended in such a spectacular and unusual way.The AP exclusive forced virtually every major news outlet to use the story, including CNN. Even Trump proclaimed he didn’t know it was coming – and he’d been railing for weeks about the case, mulling whether to pardon Flynn.https://bit.ly/2ArlBNRhttps://bit.ly/2WRm8Ae

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Exclusive: SEALs tried to locate US captive in Afghanistan

conducted an exclusive investigation into an attempt by Navy SEALs to locate Mark Frerichs, an American contractor kidnapped in Afghanistan by a Taliban-linked militant network. The story, based on conversations with multiple U.S. officials, included sensitive details of the military operation, and revealed the growing exasperation of Frerichs’ family with the U.S. government for not including him in a recent peace deal with the Taliban. https://bit.ly/3do2Wkg

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

AP takes a multinational look at the issues facing nursing homes

AP teams in Europe and the U.S. put together packages looking separately at the issues and concerns facing nursing homes during the coronavirus outbreak.

The European team produced three all-formats exclusives taking a searing look behind the scenes of nursing homes in Britain in France, exposing the pain that residents, families and medical staff are suffering as COVID-19 cuts a deadly path through homes for the elderly, killing thousands.https://bit.ly/3d0c3Yahttps://bit.ly/2VMG2Nc

In the U.S., New York staffers exposed the lack of coronavirus testing in U.S. nursing homes with two strong pieces, one finding only a third of such facilities have access to tests despite more than 13,000 deaths, and another on an outbreak in Brooklyn in which none of the 55 residents listed as dying from COVID-19 had ever been tested.https://bit.ly/3d18LE0https://bit.ly/2KMU630

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

AP: Wealthy US church ran Haiti orphanage where 13 died

conducted a two-month investigation exposing the long, troubled history of a wealthy U.S. church running the Haitian orphanage where 13 children and two adult caretakers died in a preventable February fire. Richly detailed text and heart-wrenching photos and video tell grieving families’ accounts of victimization by the church, and the disturbing history of the Church of Bible Understanding.https://bit.ly/3f0ocOphttps://bit.ly/2ySfJfG

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.

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

AP explores bitter competition for medical supplies

detailed – with the help of statehouse colleagues around the country – a dog-eat-dog marketplace where states have had to compete against each other, their own hospital systems, foreign countries and even the U.S. government for scarce protective gear and medical equipment. Would-be buyers would put down hundreds of thousands of dollars – even millions – only to be stiffed when someone else swooped in and offered more. Governors and hospital administrators said they had no choice, with lives on the line and the federal government refusing to nationalize purchasing. https://bit.ly/2RkNr3M

Best of the States

Tennessee team does double duty when tornadoes strike on Super Tuesday

When tornadoes tore through Middle Tennessee in the early-morning hours of Super Tuesday, AP’s staff deftly pivoted from preparing for the state’s primary to covering a natural disaster. 

From first light on Tuesday and throughout the day, Nashville and Memphis staffers delivered compelling all-formats coverage of the devastation that left at least 24 dead statewide. The team also connected the disaster to the primary, monitoring the impact on voting.

Strong aftermath coverage followed, including a presidential visit on Friday and well-received pieces on recovery efforts and a worship service at a damaged church. With out-of-state staffers and the entire South Desk contributing to the coverage, the sustained effort showed the AP at its best.

For proving nimble, responsive and collaborative coverage on a major breaking news story under chaotic conditions, the multiformat Tennessee team of Travis Loller, Kristin Hall, Kimberlee Kruesi, Mark Humphrey, Jonathan Mattise, Adrian Sainz and Teresa Walker shares this week’s Best of the States award. 

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

The rent is due: Stories of economic pain amid the virus

across the United States harnessed the AP’s national, multi-format footprint to produce an exclusive series of evocative personal vignettes portraying the struggle people faced to make their first rent payment since the economic collapse. The enterprise package received strong play and unusually long engagement times with readers. https://bit.ly/2xVvzG3https://bit.ly/2JLZdjF

Best of the Week — First Winner

Rare glimpses inside the pandemic: An ICU in Spain, a New York funeral home

“No.”

“Never.”

“Not possible.”  

“Can't be done.”

Photographer Felipe Dana and video journalist Renata Brito were told in no uncertain terms that Spanish hospitals and their intensive care units in particular would not allow access to journalists reporting on the coronavirus pandemic. And in New York, the all-formats team of John Minchillo, Robert Bumsted and Jake Seiner was given largely the same answer when they tried to get into a funeral home to document the surge of victims literally piling up.

Neither team took no for an answer. Both teams produced haunting images and text documenting the stark reality wrought by the pandemic.

The tenacity, skill and bravery on display from both teams was the difference between getting the story out to the world and revealing the human cost of the crisis – or not. It’s the latest example of AP journalists proving that “No. Never. Not Possible,” does not apply to them. And it is why Dana, Brito, Minchillo, Bumsted and Seiner share AP’s Best of the Week award.

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

AP examines reliability of ‘game changer’ rapid tests for coronavirus

teamed up for a close look at the reliability of rapid tests being developed to track the spread of the new coronavirus. In a prime example of AP bureaus collaborating to elevate a story from a national to a global level, reporters in Spain, Britain and the U.S. worked together to reveal that while some were touting the rapid tests as a breakthrough in detecting and tracking the disease, scientists in several countries cast doubt on the tests’ reliability. Spanish scientists said the rapid tests they reviewed were less than 30% accurate. The more established lab tests for coronavirus were about 84% accurate. https://bit.ly/344pzqm

Best of the Week — First Winner

Portraits of heroes: AP documents courageous health professionals in Italy

With a powerful and evocative photo gallery, AP journalists in Italy captured the heroism of 16 Italian medical personnel on the front lines of the battle against the coronavirus pandemic. 

Photo editor Alberto Pellaschiar proposed the idea, and hospitals – reassured by AP’s reputation for professionalism – permitted photographers Antonio Calanni and Luca Bruno and chief photo editor Domenico Stinellis to make photos of the doctors and nurses during breaks or as they finished their shifts. 

The intimate portraits conveyed the fatigue and determination of the men and women working round-the-clock to save lives. Chief correspondent Nicole Winfield studied the portraits and interviewed some of the subjects to put their struggle into words.

The impact was tremendous – the stark, understated images and accompanying story riveted audiences around the globe. 

For conceiving and executing a brilliant series of images that captures in human terms the battle against the disease, Pellaschiar, Stinellis, Calanni, Bruno and Winfield win AP’s Best of the Week.

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Scoop on death of former FBI agent Levinson in Iran

scored a pair of scoops, exclusively obtaining the FBI’s first acknowledgment of the presumed death of the agency’s long-missing former agent Robert Levinson in Iran. He was also the first to report that information about Levinson’s fate had come from Iran’s foreign minister. https://bit.ly/2RkMqJh

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Rolling out drive-thru coronavirus testing centers – chaotically

delivered a comprehensive national look the chaotic rollout of drive-thru coronavirus testing centers. Her reporting revealed that despite promises of widespread tresting, the drive-thru sites that were popping up in state parks, parking lots and outside hospitals were often plagued with long lines, inconsistencies, delays and shortages. https://bit.ly/2QR9Fdv

Best of the States

Fast, definitive work on US price gouging complaints amid coronavirus crisis

When reporters Justin Pritchard and Reese Dunklin were asked to look into price gouging and profiteering off the coronavirus crisis, they  sought to go deeper by employing a key part of their investigative reporting toolkit: a systematic reporting strategy.

The pair quickly executed a plan to question attorneys general in all 50 states, resulting in the most comprehensive look yet at the problem across the nation. In just two days of reporting, Pritchard and Dunklin uncovered more than 5,000 reports of everything from price gouging on toilet paper and masks, to scams offering tests and even cures for the illness. 

Their brightly written story won strong play on a busy day of coronavirus news, hitting the wire hours before Attorney General William Barr announced new actions against such crimes.

For fast, aggressive work that tapped into a topic on the public’s mind, AP recognizes Pritchard and Dunklin with this week’s Best of the States award.

Best of the Week — First Winner

AP is there: Exclusive access to the first human trial of coronavirus vaccine

The world had been waiting for this moment: the start of a clinical study searching for a vaccine for the new coronavirus – but no one knew when exactly the first shots would be given. AP reporters in Washington, D.C., learned where and when it would take place, laying the groundwork for an all-formats team to witness the start of the experiment in Seattle.

The result: AP was the only news organization present, sending updates in real time as the first participants received an experimental COVID-19 vaccine. The newsroom at AP’s New York headquarters erupted in cheers when the exclusive crossed the wire; text, photos and video swept play worldwide.

For ensuring AP was the only news organization in the room at a critical juncture of the coronavirus pandemic response, and for delivering distinctive journalism to customers worldwide, the team of Lauran Neergaard, Ted Warren, Carla K. Johnson, Michael Ciaglo, Federica Narancio and Marshall Ritzel wins AP’s Best of the Week award.

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

AP exclusives stand out in COVID-19 coverage

New York-based health and science reporter Mike Stobbe and Rome video journalist Trisha Thomas delivered two very different exclusives that stood out amid the week’s impressive range of AP coronavirus coverage.

Stobbe was the first to report that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention wanted to tell a wide swath of Americans that they shouldn’t get on commercial flights because of the virus. But the agency was overruled by the White House. Instead, federal officials settled on softer, less direct language. Realizing the significance, Stobbe pressed multiple sources until he had confirmation of the White House action.

Meanwhile, continents away, Rome visual journalist Trisha Thomas was visiting Padua when she learned the Italian city was about to be locked down. After making frantic arrangements to leave by train, she turned her personal odyssey into a cross-format package, producing a first-person essay and video story that gave a human face to Italy’s virus emergency.https://bit.ly/2TUgQCohttps://bit.ly/2W6dxL8