7 powerful ways that the Austin American-Statesman served our community in 2023
Dear Austin American-Statesman readers,
First, we want to wish you a Happy New Year and a heartfelt thank you for your continued support. Without you, our journalism would not be possible.
In this spirit, I’m sharing examples of the impact our journalism has made, and continues to make, in our community. This is part of a roundup that our parent company, Gannett, publishes yearly that highlights the powerful work produced across the country by local newsrooms like ours.
Let’s start with breaking some good news.
Season for Caring: our mission to help those in need
Our yearly Season for Caring program has raised more than $1.5 million in cash and from in-kind donations this season to help those most in need in our community. And we are not done. Our fundraising to help families will continue through Jan. 31.
In a time when local nonprofits' resources are stretched thin and the community's needs are ever increasing, Season for Caring has become the emergency fund for many of our nonprofit partners, said Nicole Villalpando, our health care reporter, who is in her 15th year overseeing this wonderful effort.
Groups like Family Eldercare, Meals on Wheels Central Texas and Breast Cancer Resource Center use the money to help their clients throughout the year with such basic needs as rent, groceries, transportation and medication.
Season for Caring is a labor of love for Villalpando. She works with the nonprofits to find the families, and then she assigns and edits the stories. Our print and visual journalists say these stories are among their favorite assignments.
"Season for Caring brings the community together to help so many people throughout the year," Villalpando said. "The greatest joy is to watch the families as they receive gifts from the community. There are smiles and tears for everyone in the room. It shows our families that someone cares about what they have been through. People want them to succeed."
Season for Caring is celebrating its 25th anniversary and has raised nearly $20 million in cash and in-kind contributions since it launched, an extraordinary accomplishment. And it speaks directly to our mission, as it has since the American-Statesman's founding 152 years ago: to strengthen, celebrate and lift our local community.
Metro columnist Bridget Grumet's profound impact
Two years ago, I asked Bridget Grumet to move from the Editorial Board to become our metro columnist. Her impact on our community has been profound.
Her reporting first drew public attention to the budget cuts and the temporary closure of the local natural history museum. Texas lawmakers provided $8 million to revamp this Austin treasure, which reopened in September, renamed the Texas Science & Natural History Museum.
Eleven months before a Travis County grand jury indicted the Austin police officer who fatally shot tech entrepreneur Rajan Moonesinghe, Grumet raised key questions about the police response — including why dispatchers never told the responding officers that the armed man was the homeowner, and why officers kept Moonesinghe in handcuffs as he was bleeding to death.
Grumet’s reporting also provided a platform for two families whose daughters were murdered long ago in separate crimes, as the killers in both cases had their first opportunity last year to seek parole. Surviving family members are often forgotten after the headlines fade. The solace her journalism provided the families of Ortralla Mosley and Jennifer Crecente is priceless and among our finest moments.
It is no accident that Grumet has won the Carmage Walls Commentary Prize the past two years.
The Statesman at its best: authoritative, factual journalism
The Statesman in 2023 continued to distinguish itself journalistically: holding public officials to account for their actions, calling out hypocrisy and serving our community with factual journalism during the most difficult of circumstances.
A team of Statesman journalists spent months in the lead-up to the state Senate impeachment trial of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton investigating allegations of bribery and abuse of office against him.
The Statesman broke the news that federal prosecutors in San Antonio had convened a grand jury to investigate Paxton.
During the historic impeachment and subsequent acquittal, the Statesman provided live digital coverage and — in work praised by subscribers and watched by tens of thousands of viewers — provided nightly legal and political analysis with community-based attorneys and academics.
“The (American-Statesman) is the hero here, for a great piece of historical and honest journalism,” one reader wrote. Our journalists were sought as national authorities on the case, appearing on "PBS NewsHour," MSNBC and CSPAN.
Exclusive reporting, exposing hypocrisy
Among the most read stories last year — and one that angered readers over the unfairness we uncovered — the Statesman exposed how a former Texas transportation commissioner remained on the state payroll five years after resigning.
Investigative reporter Tony Plohetski revealed how the former commissioner for the Texas Department of Transportation earned more than $90,000 five years after leaving the part-time position. After Plohetski asked for an explanation, Gov. Greg Abbott moved to fill the open seat. The lack of an appointed successor allowed the former commissioner to retain his title, position and pay even though he had resigned and had not attended subsequent meetings.
Less than 24 hours after a jury in Austin convicted Army Sgt. Daniel Perry of murder in the shooting of a Black Lives Matter protester, Abbott vowed to pardon Perry in a move that shocked the criminal justice community.
The Statesman moved swiftly to provide context and analysis to Abbott’s proposal through multiday coverage over the Easter holiday weekend, including how Abbott appeared to be responding to far-right voices such as Tucker Carlson and Kyle Rittenhouse.
Our news team created a timeline showing the growing intensity of pressure on Abbott and the infrequency of pardons by his office. Then Plohetski and reporter Claire Osborn, reporting first on newly unsealed evidence from the case, published that racist comments by Perry had been excluded from the trial.
"I am a racist," Perry had posted on social media, Plohetski and Osborn reported.
Their reporting was featured by national news outlets, including CNN.
Abbott has yet to pardon Perry.
In times of crisis, our journalists respond
We closed the year tragically covering yet another mass killing.
Our team brought urgent and groundbreaking coverage to a December shooting rampage in which police say a 34-year-old gunman killed his parents in San Antonio and four random victims in Austin during a 24-hour span in which he also shot and injured two police officers and another man.
Statesman journalists broke the news and followed up with compassionate coverage of victims in which our reporters were the first to confirm that a woman walking her 18-month-old son in her neighborhood was among those killed.
Our reporters and visual journalists took great care to tell the stories of the victims, including translating one profile into Spanish and thoughtfully chronicling the burial of a young father back in his hometown in Guatemala.
I hope these stories give you an insight into what we do every day to serve our Austin and Central Texas communities. We view our job as a public trust.
2023: a year of award-winning journalism
We had an extraordinary 2023. Our newsroom was recognized as a Pulitzer finalist in the Public Service category for exposing police failings in Uvalde, where a gunman killed 19 children and two adults at Robb Elementary School on May 24, 2022.
The newsroom also won a national Edward R. Murrow Award and the Taylor Family Prize for Fairness in Journalism from Harvard. And Plohetski, along with our TV news partner, KVUE, and the Statesman are now a finalist for the Columbia University-Alfred I. duPont prize, considered the Pulitzer Prize of television reporting.
Our Statesman newsroom: awe-inspiring talent
I’ve been a journalist for 33 years, and I’m in awe daily to see our team of professionals. It is pure joy to watch our journalists cover the University of Texas' magical run to its second straight national championship in women’s volleyball and witness our complete coverage of the football team's Big 12 title before the Longhorns join the SEC.
Our high school sports reporters elevate stories every week that could easily become screenplays for the next "Friday Night Lights." The Austin360 team is home to creativity, spirit and gifted writing. Our visuals team will leave you speechless with its journalism. Our Business and Tech team routinely breaks news on its beats. Our editorials are local, are exclusive and clearly explain the issues for voters. It’s no accident that our editorials are among the most read reports and drive a large number of new subscriptions each election cycle.
From our team: Thank you. Your support funds our journalism
To close, thank you again for supporting our mission, and if you are not a subscriber, we humbly ask that you join our family of subscribers. You help fund independent journalism that highlights successes, exposes shams and holds institutions to account.
Thank you always,
Manny García
Executive Editor
Austin American-Statesman
mrgarcia@statesman.com
@Manny_garcia1
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: How the Austin American-Statesman serves our community in 2023
