Romenesko Misc.
AP senior managing editor Michael Oreskes says “the scene was like something from a Hollywood blockbuster.”
Two ace reporters huddle in a taxi cab, racing off to mine separate sources for details of this most extraordinary of stories. A cell phone rings. On the other end is yet another source, calling back with an exceptional detail — the name of the courier who inadvertently led the U.S. to the world’s most-wanted man. This is huge. But it’s not quite enough confirmation. So the reporters split up and call more sources. And they nail it. They head to a public Wi-Fi spot to file.
Oreskes says “for their outstanding journalism and helping the AP shine on this remarkable story,” Matt Apuzzo, Kim Dozier, Adam Goldman, Eileen Sullivan, Abdul Rehman Achakzai and Julie Pace win this week’s AP “Beat of the Week” award and its $500 prize. || Read the memo.
Colleagues,
The scene was like something from a Hollywood blockbuster, “The Taking of Osama bin Laden,” packed like the rest of the narrative with tension, intrigue and secrecy:
Two ace reporters huddle in a taxi cab, racing off to mine separate sources for details of this most extraordinary of stories. A cell phone rings. On the other end is yet another source, calling back with an exceptional detail — the name of the courier who inadvertently led the U.S. to the world’s most-wanted man. This is huge. But it’s not quite enough confirmation. So the reporters split up and call more sources. And they nail it. They head to a public Wi-Fi spot to file.
In the intensely competitive hunt for information in the bin Laden killing aftermath those ace reporters, Washington’s Matt Apuzzo and Adam Goldman, teamed up to score major scoops from the intelligence sources they have been assiduously building. Others played starring roles as well, most notably the Washington bureau’s Kim Dozier and Eileen Sullivan, the Broadcast News Center’s Julie Pace, and APTN producer Abdul Rehman Achakzai in Islamabad.
Among their efforts: AP was first to report that the elite Navy SEAL team 6 carried out the raid, that crucial intelligence about bin Laden had come from detainees in secret CIA prisons, that the break in the case was an intercepted phone call last year from one of bin Laden’s trusted couriers, the courier’s name, the number of commandos involved, that bin Laden had been shot above the left eye, and that files captured from bin Laden’s compound showed his ambition to derail a train in a U.S. attack. In addition, APTN got the first agency video outside bin Laden’s compound, two hours ahead of Reuters …
CNN credited AP on air much of the week. An Illinois editor offered: “We got a call from a reader Monday asking us to pass along thanks and praise to AP writers Adam Goldman and Matt Apuzzo for their terrific story detailing how the U.S. got Osama bin Laden.” Another reader praised Cal Woodward’s narrative, based on reporting by multiple staffers, as “as good or better than any best-selling war thriller.”
For their outstanding journalism and helping the AP shine on this remarkable story, Apuzzo, Dozier, Goldman, Sullivan, Achakzai and Pace win this week’s Beat of the Week award and its $500 prize.
Pace, one of the AP’s first multi-format journalists, filed our initial flash Sunday night, based on sources, and kept the text story running for several hours. In between urgents, she ran out and recorded a video piece on the growing crowds outside the White House. Then she went back in to write and edit a video package wrapping up the night’s developments and setting the stage for the next day’s reporting.
Meanwhile, Dozier blanketed sources and unearthed the great angle that the fabled SEAL Team 6 had conducted the mission. She later convinced a U.S. official who watched the video feed from the bin Laden compound to describe what the official saw, frame by frame, including the hard landing of the helicopter as the SEALs fast-roped off it. That account fed both a Ben Feller analysis of the Situation Room photo, showing the president and his team watching the same feed, and Woodward’s tick-tock. She also confirmed Friday that the president was meeting with the SEAL team and air crew.
On Monday, Sullivan was first to report a description of one of the gunshots that killed bin Laden: a shot above the left eye, leaving a part of his skull blown away. Days later, Sullivan was first to report on specific intelligence that came from the treasure trove of information the SEALs took away from bin Laden’s compound. A source called with a cryptic message: bin Laden, trains. Further calls uncovered an intelligence report circulating about specific aspirations to blow up U.S. trains on the 10-year anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, and other news organizations rushed to match.
For the hunters of bin Laden, sources told Apuzzo, the break came in an intercepted phone call from one of bin Laden’s trusted couriers. Goldman’s sources described how the CIA used three high-value detainees to figure out the courier’s nom de guerre. After getting further details from the call in the taxi and other contacts, the pair built a story retracing the CIA’s nearly decade-long hunt for bin Laden’s courier. When their story hit the wire, the New York Times – which had been running the wrong name – pulled all references to him off the wire. “We had (the same name), sources were telling us no, and we held off. And the Times was running it and I was hoping we were right and then we got a phone call in the cab” with the courier’s correct name, Apuzzo said. Immediately after filing, Apuzzo called AP’s broadcast desk and did a Q&A. With the correct details, the Apuzzo-Goldman reconstruct beat the NYT’s version 13-4.
AP stories infused with this reporting won the play all week and served as backbone for interactive and video packages that won robust play online. By Monday evening, our interactive included a videographic, reaction videos from around the world, and timelines of bin Laden’s life and capture and the history of al-Qaida. The interactive has been viewed almost 8 million times.
APTN’s quick video outside bin Laden’s compound came thanks to Achakzai’s quick action. Achakzai got a call from a source saying there was a helicopter crash in Abbottabad, and then heard rumors that bin Laden had been killed and that Obama would speak soon. That was enough to spur him to get a shooter en route to Abbottabad. The footage set a new record, used 4,439 times by the 341 APTN customers being monitored.
In addition, an all-format team from Islamabad _ Nahal Toosi and Zarar Khan from text, Yousaf Awan and Khurram Shahzad plus Achakzai from APTN and Anjum Naveed and Muhammed Muheisen from photos _ rushed to Abbottabad, where they reported on reaction among Pakistanis who lived, unaware, in the neighborhood with bin Laden and tracked those who sold them the property. One said her grandchildren played with kids in the house and adults gave them rabbits as a gift. Another said the neighbors suspected the compound was home to “smugglers or drug dealers” because of their secretive ways.
Mike Oreskes
Senior Managing Editor
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