Colleagues,
Good Monday morning!
Ever play the parlor game, "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon," based on the "six degrees of separation" concept, which posits that any two people on Earth are six or fewer acquaintance links apart? The Kevin Bacon game rests on the assumption that anyone involved in the Hollywood film industry can be linked through film roles to Bacon within six steps.
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John Daniszewski |
I propose a similar parlor game for journalists - and I will call it, "Six Degrees of John Daniszewski."
If there is any other journalist out there whose career has touched others more than John's - with the AP and then with his work at the Los Angeles Times before returning to the AP - I would like to know about him or her.
Daniszewski, AP's Vice President for Standards and Editor at Large in New York headquarters, an assignment he took on after 10 years as AP's International Editor, is the subject of today's Monday Profile.
He takes us on his career journey that started in 1979 in Philadelphia and then to Harrisburg, New York, Warsaw (where he was shot and wounded while covering an uprising), Johnannesburg, then with the Times in Cairo, Baghdad, Moscow and London - and then back with the AP in New York.
It's a great story - enjoy!
Connecting extends congratulations to the 2018 winners of the AP's Gramling Awards. The announcement story is in today's issue.
Created in 1994 to recognize AP staffers for professional excellence, the Gramlings are decided each year by a panel of judges from across the news cooperative who evaluate submissions in four categories: journalism, achievement, spirit and scholarship. The awards, ranging from $5,000 to $10,000, come from an estate set up by the late AP broadcast executive Oliver S. Gramling.
Have a wonderful week!
Paul
Connecting Profile
John Daniszewski
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John Daniszewski and his wife Drusie Menaker, along the Hudson near their home, taken in December 2015. Drusie is a former AP journalist whose assignments included New Jersey chief of bureau.
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What are you doing these days?
Vice President for Standards, Editor at Large, The Associated Press
How did you get your first job with the AP? Who hired you? What were your first days like?
I started stringing for AP in 1977 at the federal court house in Philadelphia. I was working my way slowly through the University of Pennsylvania and had been taking some time off writing a guidebook to Philadelphia among other projects and surviving on a pizza deliver's wages and tips. The previous courthouse stringer for AP, Jeff Birnbaum, was moving on, and mentioned it casually to me. I had been an editor and reporter at The Daily Pennsylvanian, and COB Doug Bailey and avuncular news editor Herb Pelkey took a chance on me. Doug left shortly after I joined to edit a short-lived tabloid newspaper in Philadelphia, and George Zucker became my new COB. He and Herb fostered my career in numerous ways, including hiring me fulltime when I graduated from Penn in 1979, sending me to Harrisburg in 1980 and lining me up to go to the 1980 Olympics in Moscow -- the ones the U.S. boycotted. Somehow, they spread the false notion that I spoke Russian. It was my first taste of foreign travel.
We had a great bureau in Pennsylvania. My early adventures as a stringer in the federal courthouse had to do with getting news of indictments and big lawsuits faster than UPI. It was a small newsroom at the courthouse, with Harmon Y. Gordon of the Bulletin and Jan Schaffer of the Inquirer. The bureau included luminaries and colleagues of many decades now, Judy Capar, Terry Taylor, Ben Walker, Elaine Ganley, Walt Putnam, Dick Lawyer, Lee Linder in Philadelphia; Rich Kirkpatrick, Carl Manning, Tim Petit, Paul Vathis and Jill Lawrence in Harrisburg, Bob Dvorchak, Marcia Dunn, Marianne McGowan and Dave Tomlin in Pittsburgh and Gene Grabowski in Washington, among others I have no doubt omitted. All were great teachers.
What were your different past jobs in the AP, in order? Describe briefly what you did with each.
While still a courthouse stringer, I worked at the U.S. District Court near Independence Square in Philly. In the evenings, I assembled the weekly Pennsylvania Enterprise Report, which was a member share enterprise package that moved out on the state wire on Saturday night. One of the features was Pennsylvania People, a Q&A about interesting figures from the state. It was while researching one of those items at the morgue in The Bulletin that I ran into Drusie Menaker, then interning at the newspaper. We married in 1981.
My first fulltime AP job was summer relief in the Philadelphia bureau, then located in the Bulletin Building near 30th St. Station. I was a broadcast rewrite, and, in the evenings, I would phone around the state to the highway patrol headquarters looking for news of interest. Terry Taylor and I were alone in the bureau one night when the Philadelphia crime boss Angelo "The Gentle Don" Bruno was shot-gunned outside his home in South Philly. This was the Philadelphia of Mayor Frank Rizzo, marked by strikes, racial unrest, and corruption. There was always a lot to write about.
In the summer of 1980, I transferred to Harrisburg. The statehouse newsroom there could have been torn out of "The Front Page," with a poker game in the afternoon and baskets of goodies from lobbyists arriving at Christmas. At AP we had our own bureau a little apart from that; we never had time for cards and were too ethical to help ourselves to the booze. Jill Lawrence and I became friends for life. She now runs the opinion page for USA Today after being a political columnist. Among other stories, we covered the fallout of the Three Mile Island nuclear accident and the fixing of the Pennsylvania Lottery. I recall covering campaigns with the late Sens. Arlen Specter and Jim Heinz and traveling with Jimmy Carter and Roslyn to small Pennsylvania towns. I had a fascinating assignment chronicling the Centralia Mine Fire in Pennsylvania's hard-coal belt that eventually led to the town of Centralia being evacuated and razed. The fire itself is now 50 years old with no way to extinguish it. We also had the Cuban Marielito boatlift story, people arriving from Cuba in their thousands to a temporary detention camp at Fort Indiantown Gap outside Harrisburg. I remember one PAO from that mission calling my name more than a decade later in Silopi, Turkey. He was doing public information for the Kurdish refugee crisis after the first Gulf War, and we both marveled how our paths crossed again halfway around the world.
At the end of 1981, I transferred to the General Desk. Brian Friedman, Rich Herzfelder, Masha Hamilton and Betsy Brown (Kraft), were the overnight crew most nights, editing and filing national stories. We would work at 50 Rock all night and often walk home to the upper West Side in the morning. Later, I worked as morning national editor or morning supervisor. The General Desk was run by Mike Silverman, with Ellen Nimmons and Charlotte Porter playing key roles. Stories I remember from those years include the never-solved Tylenol killings in Chicago, the eruption of Mount St. Helens in Washington and the Claus von Bulow society murder trial in Rhode Island. I happened to be in the slot when the Challenger blew up over Cape Canaveral in 1986, on the phone line with aerospace writer Howard Benedict, and filed the bulletin that broke the tragic news to the world. We were faster than UPI was about a minute.
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Daniszewski holding tape recorder among reporters interviewing Lech Walesa, leader of Solidarity, in 1989. Walsea became president of Poland in late 1990. (Photos courtesy of AP Corporate Archives)
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In early 1987, I moved over to the foreign desk and Nate Polowetzky soon had enrolled me in Polish language lessons. On June 2, 1987, I arrived in Warsaw, taking over from Matt Vita. Drusie stayed on as New Jersey COB, joining me in the Warsaw bureau in December 1988. I arrived in Eastern Europe at a time when Poland was still in a post-martial-law funk after the suppression of the Solidarity trade union movement. Beneath the surface, however, tensions simmered, and the Communist party was desperate to regain legitimacy and begin to move the country economically. The planned economy was a failure. Incomes were minuscule and there was nothing worth buying in the shops - bare shelves except for jars of pickles and vinegar - and everything was accomplished under the table or through bribes and tips. The next few years were epochal. Solidarity and Lech Walesa re-emerged more strongly than before, forced the government to round-table talks, won the first partly free elections in the East bloc, and set off the fall of Communism and the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact.
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Interviewing Lech Walsea in 1989. |
I was fortunate to have a front-row seat to all these events, though less so when I was shot and wounded on Dec. 23, 1989, while covering the uprising against the dictator Nicolae Ceausescu in Romania. George Jahn has the unfortunate duty of calling Drusie in Warsaw and telling her in a single breath that I'd been shot, but it seemed like I would survive. I was eventually evacuated to Belgrade, thanks to the extraordinary efforts of the bureau there and Frankfurt COB Steve Miller. I left Poland in 1993 to take over our Johannesburg bureau, with Tina Susman as the news editor and Tom Cohen, Donna Bryson, Patrick McDowell, on the staff. Together, we covered the end of apartheid and Nelson Mandela's thrilling campaign for the presidency, another first draft of history. While there, I was able to hire a young fellow Ohioan, Paisley Dodds, who went on to become London bureau chief for AP. It was also when AP had just acquired WTN to create APTN, and a promising local assistant, Caro Kriel, came on board. She went on to become European News Director for us.
Johannesburg was my last AP assignment before going to the Los Angeles Times as the paper's Middle East bureau chief in Cairo. Those were also exciting years, covering war and conflicts in Lebanon and Iraq, and political change and succession in Iran and Syria, among other countries. My future friend Marjorie Miller was the Jerusalem bureau chief for the L.A. Times, and we often collaborated and shared front-page bylines. My most momentous story was remaining in Baghdad during the U.S. invasion of Iraq, one of the few American reporters there along with Anthony Shadid of the Post and John Burns of the New York Times. While at the L.A. Times I had also had postings to Moscow and London, and covered the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, spending all of 2003 and most of 2004 in Baghdad.
Although I loved working for the L.A. Times, I always felt the tug of the AP, and the chance to be international editor was too great an opportunity to turn down. So, I re-enlisted and moved back to New York in May 2006 after 19 years abroad. Many of my colleagues were still there, only greyer. When they asked where I'd been for the past 10 years, I used to joke that I had been working the overnight.
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John preparing for an interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2013, with Moscow news director Caro Kriel on left. (Photo courtesy of AP Corporate Archives)
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I served as international editor for more than a decade, through many international crises, becoming senior managing editor and a vice president along the way. Highlights included negotiating the opening of our Pyongyang news and photo bureau in 2012 and AP's winning the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service, the first time in its history, for the amazing series on Seafood from Slaves by Robin McDowell, Margie Mason, Esther Htusan and Martha Mendoza. We also regionalized the international news desks and helped launch what today is known as the Nerve Center. There were also great sorrows, such as the day in 2014 when Anja Niedringhaus was killed and Kathy Gannon gravely wounded in Afghanistan, and in that same year, Simone Camilli and Ali Shehda Abu Afash died in an explosion while covering ordnance demolition.
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Daniszewski speaks while Jason Reich, Global Director of Security, BuzzFeed, left, and David Rohde, National Security Investigation Editor Thomson Reuters, listen during an international conference on"News Organizations Standing Up for the Safety of Media Professionals"at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris in 2016 (AP Photo/Michel Euler)
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In 2016, when the formats were being integrated under a single news director, I was eager of a change and took up the Standards portfolio. I have been deeply involved since in developing our standards around partnerships, fact-checking and trust-building and dealing with such hot-button issues as when to call a lie a lie and how do we cover tweets fairly and accurately. I also serve on several boards, including the Pulitzer Board, the International Center for Journalists, the journalism safety group ACOS, and the Overseas Press Club Foundation. A few months ago, I became the special representative for journalist safety of the International Press Institute.
Who played the most significant role in your career and how?
There are so many people I am grateful to. Wick Temple took me under his wing at the Moscow Olympics and later engineered my transfer to New York to the General Desk. George Zucker and Herb Pelkey not only looked after me in Pennsylvania but also hired Drusie, and giving us an easy Philadelphia-Harrisburg commute. Nate Polowetzky sent me overseas and always had my back. Alison Smale was a great, great hands-on bureau chief in Vienna during the wars in former Yugoslavia. Steve Miller, who as COB in Frankfurt was my boss when I was Warsaw correspondent, drove to Belgrade on Christmas Eve 1989 after I was shot in Romania to oversee my evacuation and hospitalization. Kathleen Carroll brought me back to AP after the Los Angeles Times in 2006 to be international editor and supported me until her retirement. Lou Boccardi, Tom Curley and Gary Pruitt - each with their own style - have kept the AP healthy and sailing true when other news organizations have foundered. At the L.A. Times, Marjorie Miller, Scott Kraft, and Simon Li all were incredible editors and great role models.
Without a doubt, Drusie has been my most important editor, friend, booster, counselor and partner during our 37 years of marriage and my entire AP career.
Would you do it all over again- or what would you change?
Of course, I would, in a heartbeat. I loved reporting internationally and would like someday to get back to that. There is not much I would change, but when you lose colleagues, whether due to the dangers of our profession or to illness or disease, it makes you realize again how important it is to appreciate the people around you every day.
Just these last two years, we have said goodbye to Bob Barr, Steve Komarow, Sally Jacobsen, Richard Pyle and Jim Fitzgerald.
What's your favorite hobby or activity?
I like to read, non-fiction mostly, and look forward to the Pulitzer finalists reading season for the board that begins in late November - which is 15 books in 15 weeks. I ride my bicycle on the weekends, do crossword puzzles and take walks and hikes around our home town of Nyack or along the Hudson River. I volunteer at a church food pantry one Saturday a month.
What's the best vacation trip you've ever made?
When we were posted in South Africa, Drusie and I took our young kids on a safari vacation at Little Governor's Camp in the Maasai Mara of Kenya. We saw wonderful wildlife and remember especially little Anna in her portable car seat on the ground at a watering hole while a warthog nosed around her.
Names of your family members and what they do?
Drusie - now known as Dru to many - left the AP while we were living in South Africa to become a freelance reporter, which she continued in Cairo and Moscow. In 2001, she joined the NGO IREX that supports democratic development in transitioning and post-conflict countries worldwide. In 2016, she joined PEN America, the writers' and free expression group, where she is chief operating officer.
Anna is now a paralegal in New York City, applying to law schools this year. She earned a master's degree from Central Europe University in Budapest last year, after graduating from Bard College and teaching for a year in Kyrgyzstan.
Ben graduated from NYU with an individualized degree in game design. He is independently developing games and has a small business helping older people with their devices.
AP announces winners of 2018 Gramling Awards
Gary Pruitt
, president and CEO of The Associated Press, in this announcement sent to the AP staff last Thursday:
I am honored to announce the recipients of the 2018 Gramling Awards. The winners represent the best of AP and share a commitment to our important news mission. Though their jobs and locations vary around the AP world, they are all passionate individuals and their work is inspiring.
This year's winners include: the all-formats Syria team covering a region ravaged by seven years of war; three outstanding journalists who pursue reporting that makes a difference; a video journalist who contributes significantly to both AP's exclusive news report and to AP's revenues; a photographer who, even as a team of one, has ensured multi-format coverage from Zimbabwe; and a developer in Technology whose technical knowhow helps AP build customer portals.
The selections were made by a team of judges from across AP: Brian Barrett, assistant general counsel, New York; Susie Blann, head of news planning for Europe and Africa, London; Bridget Forrester, vice president of business operations for international sales, London; and Kiichiro Sato, regional photo editor for the central region, Chicago.
Here are AP's 2018 Gramling Award winners:
$10,000 Gramling Journalism Awards
- The Beirut team for Syria coverage: news director for Lebanon and Syria Zeina Karam, photographer Hassan Ammar, reporter Sara el Deeb, senior producer Bassam Hatoum, photo editor Hussein Malla, reporter Bassem Mroue and video journalist Andrea Rosa
Covering Syria's brutal and dangerous seven-year war is extraordinarily complicated. The nature of the conflict requires much of the reporting to be done from a distance. The Beirut all-formats team led by Zeina Karam has consistently found creative ways to mount the dangerous and logistical challenges and tell the daily story of a country at war.
They have consistently put AP ahead with their coverage from inside Damascus and other devastated parts of Syria. From an interview with the British jihadis known as the 'Beatles' of the Islamic State to dramatic photos of a missile strike outside Damascus to focused video stories of refugees to text explainers and analysis, this team has regularly delivered competitive journalism in all formats.
- Maggie Michael, correspondent, Cairo
Maggie is tenacious and courageous in her pursuit of the truth, wherever the investigative trail leads her. She has reported from militant hotspots in Iraq and Libya, jihadi nests in Sinai, and the front lines of the fight between Iran-backed rebels and the Saudi-supported government in Yemen. She has repeatedly put herself at great personal risk to report stories out of parts of the Middle East that otherwise would not see the light of day. Colleagues describe Maggie as "unrelenting and fearless" in her reporting and "sympathetic, making victims of war, starvation and other traumas feel comfortable opening up to her." She does this all with a rare combination of serious professionalism, sunny disposition and generosity of spirit to her colleagues and sources.
- Nicole Winfield, chief Vatican correspondent, Rome
Nicole is described as one of the toughest, smartest, most thorough and relentless journalists covering the Vatican today. Nicole leveraged her impressive depth of Vatican knowledge and sourcing to break several major stories over the last year that led to significant changes at the church.
Her reporting on the sex abuse scandal by Chilean clergy forced Pope Francis to confront an issue he had otherwise tried to side-step and led to the unprecedented mass resignation of the church's Chilean bishops. Her investigation of the Vatican's children's hospital exposed major shortcomings that had caused widespread child suffering. Her eagle-eyed spotting of a manipulated photo distributed by the Vatican press office led directly to the resignation of the head of that department.
Pope Francis summed it up nicely when he said to Nicole during his recent trip to Ireland, "So, you are the one who is top of the class."
- Rachel Zoll, national religion reporter, New York
For more than a decade, Rachel has been the nation's pre-eminent media voice on the subject of religion. Rachel's dedication to her craft has earned her respect by colleagues here and in the field and sources across all faiths. She is devoted to her sources and subject matter and to getting a story absolutely right.
Rachel has been honored time and again for her work. Her series on Christian missionaries in Africa, a 2016 election-year piece examining how conservative Christians felt under siege in a changing nation and another about two churches in Georgia - one black, one white - trying to bridge the divide are just a few of her remarkable stories. Her years-long research, her source building and her intricate preparation ensured AP was first to receive the news of Billy Graham's death. That same well-known dedication to her beat is what drew a notable foundation to the AP, looking for partnership on improved religion coverage. That work is ongoing.
Rachel is hugely compassionate. She has worked tirelessly behind the scenes to mentor other AP journalists to better understand religion and the importance of covering it. Vice president and managing editor Brian Carovillano captured Rachel well, "Rachel is incredibly well sourced, knowledgeable and deeply respected by her peers in the field. She has broken innumerable stories and writes pieces that are important and almost always counter-intuitive. She has a knack for finding the story or angle that no one else considered but is packed with insight and surprises. "
$10,000 Gramling Achievement Award
- Raf Wober, video journalist, Hong Kong
Succeeding in journalism and business is difficult at the best of times. Doing so in North Korea raises the bar significantly. Raf has spent more than 2,000 days inside North Korea in the past 15 years - that's 115 trips. No other journalist in the world has as much experience covering North Korea.
Raf's footage has aired on every news outlet on every continent at every key moment in North Korea's recent history, and he is often the only journalist to report live. Not only has Raf advanced AP's news position within the region - he can break news fluently in English, Mandarin, Cantonese and Japanese - he has also pushed the commercial opportunities that help fund our news mission. He has single-handedly secured close to $1 million in revenues in the past 18 months and has helped to drive our GMS business as well as AP Video Archive, which is now the only collection of archive video from that country.
$10,000 Gramling Spirit Awards
- Senthil Chidambaram, senior developer, Cranbury, New Jersey
When AP develops new websites to deliver content to customers, Senthil has his hands full as the architect for user interfaces. Senthil has worked on many portals - AP Images, AP Exchange, AP Archive and AP Video US - and is now lead developer for AP Newsroom and AP Video Hub. He is meticulous and attentive to every detail, setting high standards for himself and others around him. Regardless of the complexity of any project, Senthil finds a way to get it done on time and with enthusiasm. Director of AP Newsroom Development Dawn McDonald said, "Senthil has that 'Michael Jordan-esque' ability to make others on the team step up their game."
- Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi, photographer, Harare, Zimbabwe
Tsvangirayi has been indispensable to AP's coverage of one of Africa's biggest stories of the last year - the fall of Robert Mugabe after 37 years as prime minister and president. Going beyond his remit as a talented photographer, his efforts ensured AP journalists were allowed into the country when other media were turned away. This required good connections at the Ministry of Information, extraordinary persistence and patience at a time when he was also covering complex and fast-moving news developments in his primary role. This is no small feat in a country with a combative attitude toward foreign media. Even as the only AP staffer in Zimbabwe, Tsvangirayi demonstrated the true spirit of teamwork by producing all-format planning notes, securing interviews with major political sources and filing in all formats.
Please join me in congratulating the winners of the 2018 Oliver S. Gramling Awards!
AP Essay: Violence meets well-traveled reporter in hometown
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Dan Sewell, outside scene of shooting at Fountain Square in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)
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By DAN SEWELL
CINCINNATI (AP) - Over four decades with The Associated Press, I have many times thrown clothes into a bag, withdrawn a wad of cash, and stuffed my laptop case with notebooks and pens before rushing by car or plane to a terrible event in someone else's hometown, state or country.
Bombings, shootings, floods, fires, tornadoes, coups, even a U.S. military invasion.
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First responders at scene of shooting. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)
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There are certain images seared into my memory:
- Heartbreaking security footage of children in the day care of the federal building that would be in ruins after the bombing in Oklahoma City. People wailing and one man's body wracked with uncontrollable sobs as they returned home after deadly flooding in Falmouth, Kentucky. Taking a rowboat through Hurricane Katrina-flooded New Orleans and seeing a body float by.
- Mingling among stressed-out family members waiting with Red Cross volunteers for news of loved ones who got trapped in a high-rise hotel fire in San Juan, Puerto Rico. A grieving mother's eyes moistening and her little grandson looking up quizzically as she talked about his parents in St. George's, Grenada, where they had been executed in a coup that triggered the U.S.-led invasion.
- Stunned relatives and scared students describing fatal shootings in their neighborhoods or schools in multiple towns, in multiple states.
This time, it was in my town.
Read more here. Shared by Eva Parziale.
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Proud of the 'stealth' broadcast services - APTN and AP Radio
Ed Tobias
(Email) - Scanning the TV nets for Hurricane Florence coverage Friday afternoon I happened to be on Fox as the anchor, describing some live video from Wilmington, NC, asked his producer "What's this?" After receiving a quick answer in his IFB earpiece he continued "This is APTN. Associated Press Television News. They have a sophisticated system that allows them to drive around and show you pictures like this." APTN was mentioned two more times over the next five or six minutes.
Some call APTN and AP Radio "stealth" broadcast services because their products are unbranded and rarely credited. The fact that a network anchor thought enough of this video to give it public recognition speaks highly of the work being done by my former colleagues.
-0-
Evacuation in Fayetteville
Members of the Nebraska Task Force 1 urban search and rescue team help load an elderly resident onto a bus as they evacuate an assisted living facility in Fayetteville, N.C., Saturday, Sept. 15, 2018. | David Goldman/AP Photo
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Trafficked Myanmar 'bride' escapes Chinese captivity - but loses her son
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Marip Lu sits in her family's shelter at a refugee camp in northern Kachin State, Myanmar, March 21, 2018. The 24-year-old says she was kidnapped by traffickers and suffered six years of captivity, rape and abuse deep in China. As the demand for "brides" in China rises, the AP pieced together the tragic ordeal of this woman who escaped, but had to leave her son behind. AP Photo / Esther Htusan
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The team - Todd Pitman, Esther Htusan and Jerry Harmer - had gone to Kachin state to report on the war between Kachin rebels and Myanmar's army. Near the end of their trip, they decided to look into a story Htusan wanted to do on bride trafficking. The lead was vague and the team wasn't sure where it would take them.
But then, at a refugee camp, they met Marip Lu. And they knew immediately this was a story that had to be told.
The harrowing tale of a woman who was kidnapped, held in captivity, raped and then forced to make the choice between freedom and her child is the Beat of the Week.
Marip Lu's recollections were detailed, and vivid. She recalled how she was tricked, drugged and taken to China, to be married to a couple's mentally disabled son; how the father raped her repeatedly; how she gave birth to a beloved son; how she plotted to escape after six years, but had to leave her son behind. She shared nearly 200 photos that were on her phone.
"These photos backed up her story - she had photos of her son, the house she lived in - with a partial address on a wall of it, and even the car she escaped in," said Pitman, a Bangkok-based enterprise writer. "This was important, because they were clues I knew we could follow up on later to dig further."
The reporters had little time to spend with Marip Lu - just an afternoon and a morning, and then they had to leave. They interviewed her in her house in a refugee camp, a bamboo/wood makeshift hut. Her parents were not pleased that she was telling her story to these visiting journalists, but Marip Lu wanted to talk. When it came to the details of her rape and abuse, she walked away with Htusan, the Yangon correspondent, and they spoke privately.
Back at their desks, they called Marip Lu many times over the following months. Often, her phone was not working; networks could be downed by heavy rain or lack of electricity to charge phones. But over time, the woman opened up, offering more and more detail with each call.
Most of the story was done when they asked her if they could visit the family in China. The issue was security or her son. Could it endanger him? "We wanted to give Marip Lu control over that," Pitman said. In the end, she agreed.
Shanshan Wang, a Beijing news assistant, and reporter Yanan Wang scoured Google Maps and cold-called shops and government offices to nail down where the family lived. Shanshan Wang also would seek comment from police and local government, and serve as the main AP contact with Marip Lu after Beijing photographer Han Guan Ng and videojournalist Dake Kang met with the family. Again and again, she would reassure Marip Lu that the AP was not automatically assuming that the family was telling the truth - that the reporters were merely getting both sides of the story.
That meeting was difficult. The father, Li Qinggong, clearly had a temper and was not interested in speaking to the AP. The reporters persisted.
At one point, the couple argued about whether they should talk to AP. Li Qinggong started cursing at his wife, Xu.
"If you want to talk, why don't you just go outside?" Li shouted. "You're really doing this for nothing. You're asking for trouble. Why don't you go die?"
"I don't want to die!" his wife yelled back, before Li chucked his smartphone at her to stop her from talking.
Li denied he had raped Marip Lu. He displayed WeChat messages that showed that Marip Lu had recently been in touch, exchanging pleasantries and photos.
"We didn't know what to make of it and thought it may kill the whole story," Pittman recalled. "Was she lying to us?"
They went back to Marip Lu, and her story made sense: She contacted the family because she desperately wanted to speak to her son.
The family in China could not explain: How did a young girl from Myanmar end up in their village to marry their mentally disabled son?
"Ultimately, we believed Marip Lu because so many of her details were corroborated - by her mother, father, her photos, and the women's group people we interviewed in Laiza that rescued her," Pitman said. "The family in China, meanwhile, did not really want to speak, expressed great moments of anger, and crucially, could not explain the most fundamental key of the story: How did a young girl from Myanmar end up thousands of miles away in their village to marry their mentally disabled son?"
"Ultimately, we believed Marip Lu because so many of her details were corroborated."
Todd Pitman, global enterprise reporter, Bangkok
Illustrating the story presented other challenges. Harmer, the Bangkok video editor, raced to shoot Marip Lu in just a few hours and to do it in a way that did not give away her identity, out of concern for her safety. The same standard was set for Marip Lu's photos shot by Htusan, and no pictures of her son were used. Meanwhile, Han Guan Ng was able to make revealing photos of the Li family at their home in China.
Readers were rapt; they spent an average of 2½ minutes reading the story, by far the most engagement of any AP story that day.
But contacted by the AP, Marip Lu said nothing had changed. She had not heard from Li Quinggong or anyone else.
"I dream of my son every night," she said, "I miss him very much."
For a powerful story, reported and told with great sensitivity, Pitman, Htusan, Harmer, Ng, Kang, Shanshan Wang and Yanan Wang share this week's Beat of the Week.
#NotInvisible: Why are Native American women vanishing, dying?
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Kimberly, left, and cousin Lissa Loring look out from a mountaintop on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation during a search for Kimberly's missing sister, Ashley HeavyRunner Loring, in Babb, Mont., July 12, 2018. A 2017 analysis by Montana's Department of Justice found Native Americans account for 30 percent of missing girls and women, even though they represent only 3.3 percent of the state's population. AP Photo / David Goldman
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It's a subject that has been largely ignored by the public and mainstream press in the U.S.: the plight of thousands of missing and murdered Native American women across the country.
Albuquerque reporter Mary Hudetz and national enterprise journalists Sharon Cohen and David Goldman teamed up to deliver an impressive all-formats package that illuminated these tragedies, getting play as far away as New Zealand and earning praise from the industry for their efforts.
Cohen spent weeks finding victims' relatives who would talk and agree to be photographed and go on camera. Hudetz, a member of the Crow Tribe and past president of the Native American Journalists Association, sifted through databases and reports with missing person cases and numbers to try to shed light on the volume of cases that the government knows about and has compiled. Cohen and Goldman traveled to the Blackfeet Reservation, where persistence and patience won them the access needed to intimately show and tell this story. At one point, Goldman was invited along on a BBQ and to the room where the main character in the package was staying when she disappeared. Data journalist Angel Kastanis was brought in to help with the numbers, and West region enterprise editor Katie Oyan was instrumental in guiding the project along.
Hudetz sifted through databases and missing person reports to shed light on the number of known cases. Persistence and patience won the access Cohen and Goldman needed to intimately tell this story.
The package brought readers into the heart of the Blackfeet Reservation, giving them a sense of place through images that captured poverty, despair and scenes of a thriving community set against an expansive landscape. Goldman produced a mini-documentary set to an original music score that capture the grief of these families. It closed with an array of missing and murdered posters featuring Native women and girls, hauntingly showing just how widespread this problem has become.
The package was a tremendous hit in play; we heard from customers in New Zealand who ran it. But our U.S. customers in states with reservations were especially thrilled, and featured it widely on front pages. As soon as the package was advised on the wire, we received two notes from editors at The Missoulian in Montana - one from Editor Kathy Best and the other from City Editor Gwen Florio - thanking us for taking this subject on. As Gwen wrote: "So glad y'all did it. Wish we had, but no matter what, glad it's going to be out there in the depth it deserves." And from Kathy: "I'm glad you made the commitment and thrilled we will get to run these pieces. Thank you for this important journalism."
The story was by far the winner on the AP app on a crazy busy news day, with not only the Anonymous op-ed story breaking but the Kavanaugh hearings.
"A testament to the power of deep reporting and powerful images to break through the chaos."
Brian Carovillano, managing editor
As Managing Editor Brian Carovillano said: "Let's ... pause for a moment to appreciate the fact that this excellent enterprise package rose to the top of the heap on one of the busiest and most significant news days in recent memory. A testament to the power of deep reporting and powerful images to break through the chaos."
For their efforts, Hudetz, Goldman and Cohen win this week's Best of the States award.
Stories of interest
Opinion: Myanmar's Assault on a Truthful Press
(New York Times)
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Ten Rohingya boys and men in a Rakhine village last year. They were later found dead in a mass grave. Photo by Reuters
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By Stephen J. Adler
Mr. Adler, the president and editor in chief of Reuters, sits on the board of the Committee to Protect Journalists.
In Myanmar, as everywhere, facts have power. It was the gruesome facts uncovered by two of our reporters for Reuters, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, that led to their being framed, arrested, tried and - this month - handed a draconian seven-year prison sentence. Last week, Myanmar's civilian leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, resolutely ignored the facts and vigorously defended the unjust convictions. With the United Nations General Assembly gathering soon, it's time to harness the facts to secure our reporters' freedom.
Here are the facts:
The Rohingya are a Muslim minority based in Rakhine State, in western Myanmar, a majority-Buddhist country. Last year, a military crackdown sent more than 700,000 Rohingya fleeing to refugee camps in Bangladesh. The United Nations has accused the Myanmar government of ethnic cleansing; Myanmar says its operations in Rakhine were in response to attacks on security forces by Rohingya insurgents.
Read more here. Shared by Sibby Christensen.
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Time Magazine to Be Sold to the Salesforce Billionaire Marc Benioff
(New York Times)
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Marc Benioff, the chief executive of Salesforce. He and his wife, Lynne, have agreed to buy Time magazine from Meredith Corporation for $190 million. Photo/Matt Edge for The New York Times
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By The New York Times
Time, the pre-eminent weekly newsmagazine of the 20th century, has a new owner: Marc Benioff, the billionaire co-founder of the San Francisco software company Salesforce.
Time's current owner, the Iowa-based Meredith Corporation, announced that it had entered into what it described in a news release as "a definitive agreement" to sell the storied publication to Mr. Benioff and his wife, Lynne, for $190 million in cash.
In its statement, Meredith said that the Benioffs would be hands-off owners and made it clear that the deal had nothing to do with Salesforce.
"The Benioffs are purchasing Time personally and the transaction is unrelated to Salesforce.com, where Mr. Benioff is chairman, co-C.E.O. and founder," Meredith said in its release. "Mr. and Mrs. Benioff will not be involved in the day-to-day operations or journalistic decisions, which will continue to be led by Time's current executive leadership team."
Read more here. Shared by Claude Erbsen.
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Missouri town gets new newspaper, The Uranus Examiner
URANUS, Mo. (AP) - Cue the giggling: A small Missouri town has a new newspaper called The Uranus Examiner.
KYTV reports that the newspaper's launch was announced Wednesday, just days after GateHouse Media said it was shuttering Pulaski County's local paper, the Daily Guide.
The new publication's editor, Natalie Sanders, led the Daily Guide before leaving in June to start what she calls a "fun" paper that will include local news and promote the tourist town of Uranus, which is pronounced the way any self-respecting class clown would say it.
Uranus sits along historic Route 66 and is known for quirky attractions, including a fudge shop and the world's largest belt buckle.
Luge Hardman, the mayor of nearby Waynesville, where the Daily Guide was based, says she thinks the "innuendo" surrounding the new publication's name will bring "public ridicule."
Click here
for link to this story. By Adolphe Bernotas.
The Final Word
People Are Cracking Up At This Video Of A Weather Channel Reporter Being A Little Dramatic During Hurricane Florence
(Buzzfeed)
Hurricane Florence made landfall in North Carolina on Friday, bringing a real, dangerous threat to millions in its path. However, one moment caught on live TV is giving people some much-needed comic relief.
Twitter user @gourdnibler captured a Weather Channel reporter struggling to stand upright and seemingly holding onto dear life - until the camera pans out a bit and captures two people casually strolling in the background.
Read more and view here. Shared by Paul Shane.
Today in History - September 17, 2018
Today is Monday, Sept. 17, the 260th day of 2018. There are 105 days left in the year.
Today's Highlight in History:
On Sept. 17, 1787, the Constitution of the United States was completed and signed by a majority of delegates attending the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia.
On this date:
In 1862, more than 3,600 men were killed in the Civil War Battle of Antietam (an-TEE'-tum) in Maryland.
In 1920, the American Professional Football Association -- a precursor of the National Football League -- was formed in Canton, Ohio.
In 1939, the Soviet Union invaded Poland during World War II, more than two weeks after Nazi Germany had launched its assault.
In 1964, the James Bond movie "Goldfinger," starring Sean Connery, premiered in London. The fantasy sitcom "Bewitched," starring Elizabeth Montgomery, debuted on ABC-TV.
In 1971, citing health reasons, Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black, 85, retired. (Black, who was succeeded by Lewis F. Powell Jr., died eight days after making his announcement.)
In 1978, after meeting at Camp David, Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin (men-AH'-kem BAY'-gihn) and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat signed a framework for a peace treaty.
In 1980, former Nicaraguan president Anastasio Somoza (suh-MOH'-sah) was assassinated in Paraguay.
In 1987, the city of Philadelphia, birthplace of the U.S. Constitution, threw a big party to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the historic document; in a speech at Independence Hall, President Ronald Reagan acclaimed the framing of the Constitution as a milestone "that would profoundly and forever alter not just these United States but the world."
In 1996, former Vice President Spiro T. Agnew died in Berlin, Maryland, at age 77.
In 1999, President Bill Clinton lifted restrictions on trade, travel and banking imposed on North Korea a half-century earlier, rewarding it for agreeing to curb missile tests.
In 2001, Six days after 9/11, stock prices nosedived but stopped short of collapse in an emotional, flag-waving reopening of Wall Street; the Dow Jones industrial average ended the day down 684.81 at 8,920.70.
In 2011, a demonstration calling itself Occupy Wall Street began in New York, prompting similar protests around the U.S. and the world.
Ten years ago: Defense Secretary Robert Gates met with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and offered the people of Afghanistan his "personal regrets" for U.S. airstrikes that had killed civilians and said he would try to improve the accuracy of air warfare. A suicide attack on the U.S. Embassy in Sanaa (sah-NAH'), Yemen, killed 19 people, including an American woman and six militants.
Five years ago: Engineers declared success as the Costa Concordia cruise ship was pulled completely upright during an unprecedented, 19-hour operation to wrench it from its side where it had capsized off Tuscany in 2012. Eiji Toyoda (cq), 100, a member of Toyota's founding family who helped create the super-efficient "Toyota Way" production method, died in Toyota city, Japan.
One year ago: British authorities said a second suspect was in custody in connection with the bomb that partially exploded two days earlier on a packed London subway. The top series prizes at the Emmy Awards went to "The Handmaid's Tale," ''Veep" and the ever-topical "Saturday Night Live"; the ceremony took almost nonstop aim at President Donald Trump in awards and speeches.
Today's Birthdays: Sen. Charles E. Grassley, R-Iowa, is 85. Retired Supreme Court Justice David H. Souter is 79. Singer LaMonte McLemore (The Fifth Dimension) is 83. Retired U.S. Marine Gen. Anthony Zinni is 75. Basketball Hall of Fame coach Phil Jackson is 73. Singer Fee Waybill is 70. Actress Cassandra Peterson ("Elvira, Mistress of the Dark") is 67. Comedian Rita Rudner is 65. Muppeteer Kevin Clash (former voice of Elmo on "Sesame Street") is 58. Director-actor Paul Feig is 56. Movie director Baz Luhrmann is 56. Singer BeBe Winans is 56. TV personality/businessman Robert Herjavec (TV: "Shark Tank") is 55. Actor Kyle Chandler is 53. Director-producer Bryan Singer is 53. Rapper Doug E. Fresh is 52. Actor Malik Yoba is 51. Rock singer Anastacia is 50. Rock musician Keith Flint (Prodigy) is 49. Actor Matthew Settle is 49. Rapper Vinnie (Naughty By Nature) is 48. Actor-comedian Bobby Lee is 47. Actor Felix Solis is 47. Rhythm-and-blues singer Marcus Sanders (Hi-Five) is 45. Actress-singer Nona Gaye is 44. Singer-actor Constantine Maroulis is 43. NASCAR driver Jimmie Johnson is 43. Pop singer Maile (MY'-lee) Misajon (Eden's Crush) is 42. Country singer-songwriter Stephen Cochran is 39. Rock musician Chuck Comeau (Simple Plan) is 39. Actor Billy Miller is 39. Country singer Desi Wasdin (3 of Hearts) is 35. Rock musician Jon Walker is 33. Actress Danielle Brooks is 29. Actress-singer Denyse Tontz is 24.
Thought for Today: "The great tragedy of life is not that men perish, but that they cease to love." - W. Somerset Maugham, English author and dramatist (1874-1965).
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