AP draws on years of reporting and expertise to produce a powerful immersive fact check of Jan. 6

By Alanna Durkin Richer, Michael Kunzelman, Cal Woodward, Panagiotis (Takis) Mouzakis and Katie Vogel

Over the past three and a half years, reporters Michael Kunzelman and Alanna Durkin Richer have spent countless hours inside the federal courthouse in Washington covering the hundreds of Jan. 6 defendants who have been charged and convicted in the riot. This included scouring thousands of documents and hundreds of videos and other evidence that showed the violence of day. During this time, the AP compiled a database of all the cases, ingesting all the video and other evidence submitted in the cases.

Despite the insurrection being covered on live television and witnessed by millions, an increasing number of Americans believe the rioters were prosecuted wrongly and that the violence was overblown. Misinformation and false claims, including by former President Donald Trump, have flourished.

The project’s aim was to show the AP’s expertise covering the Jan. 6 defendants and present what happened in a visually compelling way. 

The reporters worked with Darrell Allen, Takis Mouzakis and Howie Rumberg to showcase their reporting, expertise, video evidence and AP photos. Their vision brought various parts of the story together, presented in an engaging fashion. They teamed up with Washington reporter and writer Cal Woodward and worked with Katie Vogel, who developed an audience plan that ensured the project got attention on APNews and by AP’s digital followers via newsletters.

Judges were impressed by the presentation that brought back to life a horrendous day whose memory has begun to fade. One judge spoke of its “clear-eyed recounting of facts” that synthesized years of coverage to counter misinformation and that put readers at the scene. Another praised its case studies and noted its “comprehensive and detailed presentation” as especially useful for international audiences.  

Despite moving on a busy news day, the project got attention for its powerful fact checking and storytelling. APNews audiences also were engaged. The immersive had more than 321,000 on its first day and was one of the Top 5 clicks of the year on the Morning Wire newsletter. It also garnered high engagement on Facebook and Reddit, as well as X. Audiences spent an average of 1:40 minutes on the site, far higher than the average 30 seconds or so on most AP stories.

For a timely effort to show the possible consequences of future electoral battles in the United States by reflecting on what happened the last time, the team of Alanna Durkin Richer, Michael Kunzelman, Cal Woodward, Takis Mouzakis and Katie Vogel earns this week’s Best of the AP — First Winner

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