Last Wednesday, the video that I produced with my colleagues from the New York Times’ Visual Investigation team won two Emmy awards, for Best News Coverage (Short Form), and Outstanding Investigative News Coverage. Here’s the press release:
Using never-before-seen security camera footage, The Visual Investigations team was the first to dispute the military version of a U.S. drone strike against what it claimed was an ISIS suicide bomber. The team proved that the United States instead killed an innocent Afghan civilian and nine of his family members. This group of dogged journalists verified the footage with eyewitness accounts and satellite images to create a highly detailed and damning account of the day’s events. The video unit’s coverage forced the Pentagon to apologize — and cleared the family’s name.
“The team worked relentlessly and quickly to zero-in on and assemble the visual evidence that dismantled the U.S. military’s version of events, even in the face of continuous pushback from the Pentagon,” said Mark Scheffler, editor of Visual Investigations. “In the wake of our story, officials admitted they had made a ‘catastrophic mistake.’ Setting the record straight is a true hallmark of this team, and this award is a great testament to their pursuit of accountability.”