Insights from the Pulitzer Prize Winning Investigative Team at the Miami Herald.
Posting: Wednesday, June 29, 2022
On May 9, 2022, The Miami Herald was awarded its 23rd Pulitzer Prize. The Herald received the top prize in the Breaking News category for its coverage of the heart-breaking tragedy of the Surfside collapse in South Florida. The Herald obtained first-responder body-cam footage, thousands of pages of structural drawings, inspection reports and more when covering the story.
This particular award didn’t just go to one individual as a whole, but rather to the entire team, which consists of more than 35 journalists. We spoke with Casey Frank, Senior Editor/Investigations at The Herald about this award along with how reporting this event went. The Investigative team - or I-team - is funded in part by philanthropy and Journalism Funding Partners.
Q. What does winning the Pulitzer mean for this team?
I think someday it will mean a lot. But at the time the Pulitzer was announced, the reporter who led our Investigative team coverage was overcome with emotion. It was not joy, but sadness and tearful frustration over the lives lost in such a needless way. And for the burden that is – and always will be – carried by survivors of the collapse. Many have not enjoyed a peaceful night’s sleep since the tower fell, reliving the horror
of waking up in the middle of the night, opening their doors and looking down into a dark abyss. Since the morning of the collapse, we have strived to untangle the mystery and explain exactly what occurred and why. Our findings have been praised by structural engineers, family members of the dead, even officials with the National Institute of Standards and Technology, which is charged with determining an official cause.
We believe, based on exhaustive reporting, that we have presented a plausible theory for how a localized collapse in the pool deck section of CTS propagated into the tower. But we have yet to determine to our satisfaction the actual trigger point. And that frustrates our team. This community is our community and that neighborhood was the neighborhood of several of our journalists. We want to provide people with all the answers. We think we have made great headway. But there is more to be known. It should be noted that this prize was not awarded to the Instigative team but to the newsroom at large, and that is gratifying since the entire newsroom responded with heart, courage and determination.
Q. With how tragic this event was, how difficult was it to report somewhere so close to home?
The Investigative team has covered a string of incomprehensible tragedies in recent years – first, the slaughter at Parkland High School, then the collapse of the Florida International University footbridge over Southwest Eighth Street, then the fall of Champlain Towers. Unfortunately, walking this path more than once doesn’t make it any easier. Asking people to describe the worst moment of their lives – the instant they learned their precious daughter was crushed under tons of concrete when a bridge fell, or the day their beloved son was cut down by a school shooter – is emotionally gutting, and our reporters have struggled to deal with that.
Q. Does the team as a whole generally have a certain approach to reporting or does having a large team warrant lots of diverse reporting styles that may be beneficial?
Investigative teams truly work as a team when there is a big story. In this case, different reporters played to their individual strengths. Sarah Blaskey became our engineering expert, working in conjunction with structural engineering consultant Dawn Lehman of the University of Washington. Aaron Leibowitz, whose background was in municipal reporting, specialized in working the halls of city and county governments,
where the inspection reports were filed, the change orders were approved and inspectors were (supposedly) going over structural plans to ensure they were sound and that they were rigorously followed. Ben Conarck and Nicholas Nehamas did the hard work of tracking down survivors, relatives of the victims, lawyers, photos of the wreckage and helped put together what people saw and heard with the evidence that existed in the wake of the collapse. They were also critical in framing out the early versions of the stories. In many ways, building out a story is like building a structure. It needs a strong foundation.
4. Because this was in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, were there any additional challenges the team faced while reporting this story due to the state of the world?
Yes. In addition to not wanting to intrude on the lives of the grieving, reporters are also reluctant to do anything that might expose people to COVID -19, especially early on when treatments were elusive and vaccines were non-existent. That was certainly an added challenge. One thing this team never did is press people especially hard to talk to us. Many weren’t ready at first and rather than apply pressure we simply said “when you are ready, please give us a call” or “can we get back to you in a couple of months and see how you are doing?” I am aware of no one who believes they were pressured into telling their story. I am aware of several who said some version of: “I saw your reporting. I appreciate what you are doing. Now I am ready to tell you my story.”
5. What does this investigative team hope to accomplish in the future?
This is an accountability job. Our task that very first day was to “find out why this happened” and report back. We are proud of what we have accomplished so far, but will keep tugging on strings of information in hopes of showing exactly what caused this – for the sake of the victims, their families and people who live in oceanfront condos and deserve to know if they too might be at risk. The Herald’s tradition of aggressive investigative reporting has been passed on as a family heirloom through generations. I have been here to witness that over a span of 40 years. Someday that heirloom will be passed on by me.
I want to note that while we were investigating the cause of the collapse of Champlain Towers last year we also produced another of the most honored projects in journalism, a series of articles called Birth & Betrayal, which examined how the state of Florida shortchanges the families of children born with catastrophic brain injuries. (We partnered with ProPublica.) There is always something happening in Florida, and we have our heads on a swivel and our eyes trained in many directions. Two things are currently on our radar: the weaponization of the levers of state government to punish dissenting views and the questionable wisdom of local governments using taxpayer resources to become promoters of (and investors in) cryptocurrency.
We believe we fulfill an essential role in South Florida.
Casey Franks | Senior Editor & Investigations at The Miami Herald
The Herald has documented this special reporting on their website recording all reporting efforts on the collapse. Related articles posted at the time can be viewed online here.
About The Miami Herald: Based out of Miami, FL, The mission of The Miami Herald is the most credible and dynamic source of news, information and innovative marketing solutions in our community. Visit online: https://www.miamiherald.com/
About JFP: The mission of Journalism Funding Partners is to strengthen the depth, diversity and sustainability of local news by building and shepherding relationships between funders and local news organizations. JFP is a recognized nonprofit that acts as fiscal sponsor, allowing foundations and individual funders to contribute directly to local news, regardless of the news organization’s business model. JFP manages the funds feeding numerous news initiatives, including more than a dozen Climate reporters in the Southeast, an Equity Desk at The Sacramento Bee, an Education and Economic Mobility Desk in California’s Central Valley, the Investigative Fund of The Miami Herald and for Inclusivity and Investigative funds at the Associated Press.
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Media Contact: Rusty Coats, Executive Director | rusty@jfp-local.org | (813) 277-8959
