“IRS Plane Crash”

Recipient of the Star Breaking News Report award in The Charles E. Green Awards (2011)

Staff Writers
Austin American-Statesman

Judge Comments:

Big breaking news events centered on a disaster give most journalists an adrenalin rush. This can push them to quickly produce extraordinary packages for their newspapers. But the rushed process of gathering, producing and packaging the news seldomn leaves time for the brain to completely engage all the possibilities. But Austin’s response to the IRS plane crash showed remarkable nuance and a tremendous amount of connect-the-dots thinking. That, more than anything, persuaded me that they deserved the top prize. In my gut, I wanted to give the award to the smallest paper in the division, which did an amazingly outsized job on a serious and dramatic flood. But the IRS coverage was flawless and packed perspective and depth into the emotional coverage. It was a complicated set of developments, but the print coverage were organized in a way that made it easy to follow.

The graphic support, combining mapping and real disaster photos told the essence of the main event. Then stories by K. Robbins and Andrea Bell gave well written perspectives from first-hand witnesses. The coverage also reflected the value of social media and highlighted the paper’s own smart connecting of the dots from some of that information. This enabled them to tell us volumes about the man who did the deed. I also liked the way they reported on other people’s use of social media and how it varied in its reliability. The fact that one of the paper’s reporters just happened to know the guy from when he played bass in a band, added a nice touch. Lucky, yes, but the best make their own luck and with this coverage the American-Statesman showed it was the best.

Bob Stover
Editor
Florida Today

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