“Our folks were just in the wrong place at the wrong moment and there was no way out. They just got trapped. One hit by a rubber bullet, a couple were pepper sprayed -- and I mean at point blank range.“ - Kirk Varner, KSTP News Director and 2021 duPont-Columbia Award Winner.

In this episode of On Assignment, KSTP News Director, Kirk Varner discusses the difficulty of reporting on the murder of George Floyd and the protests that rocked Minneapolis throughout the summer of 2020.

From the beginning, KSTP’s coverage contextualized events and mobilized all the resources of a local newsroom to provide deep, sustained coverage of a story that expanded far beyond Minneapolis-St. Paul.

In this conversation with duPont Awards Director Lisa R. Cohen, Varner tells behind-the-scenes stories about split second newsroom decisions, like when a truck drove through protestors on live air. He also discusses the challenges that KSTP’s reporters faced whether physical, like rubber bullets and pepper spray, or psychological - like the fatigue and burnout that comes from covering a challenging, ongoing story in the midst of a global pandemic.

The 2022 duPont-Columbia Awards are open for submissions! If you have done deeply reported audio or video work, visit duPont.org to learn more and submit. You can also watch the 2021 duPont ceremony on PBS digital channels or at duPont.org/watch.

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