Saturday, September 16, 2023

Fish Pirates from 'Trafficked with Mariana van Zeller' among nominees for Outstanding Investigative News Coverage: Long Form at the 2023 News & Doc Emmy Awards


My reaction to Trafficked with Mariana van Zeller's "Amazon Mafia" in Outstanding Science, Technology or Environmental Coverage nominees cover plastics, the Amazon, school surveillance, and mental health concluded with a program note.
["Amazon Mafia"] is another video I can recommend to my students. It's just as strong on the environment as In Real Life: Plastic Time Bomb, even if it's weaker on the science. It, like all the other nominated episodes of Trafficked with Mariana van Zeller, makes up for it by being strong on long-form investigative reporting and crime coverage. In fact, "Fish Pirates" earned a nomination for Outstanding Investigative News Coverage: Long Form as well as Outstanding Writing: News and I've already mentioned that "White Supremacy" has nominations for Outstanding Crime and Justice Coverage, Outstanding Editing: News, and Outstanding Research: News. I will try to get around to covering those categories, if I haven't already, and embedding their videos.
In addition, I mentioned that "Trafficked with Mariana van Zeller's 'Cocaine Queens' earned a nomination for Outstanding Writing: News" in 'Beyond Fentanyl' and 'Vice News Tonight' lead Outstanding Health or Medical Coverage at the News & Doc Emmy Awards, so I've decided to examine all of the nominations for the National Geographic long-form news series, beginning with the nomination of "Fish Pirates" for Outstanding Investigative News Coverage: Long Form in today's entry.

First, the nominated episode, Fish Pirates (Full Episode) | Trafficked with Mariana Van Zeller.

As much as 30% of our seafood has been caught illegally. Mariana searches for the fish pirates who make billions each year while destroying our oceans.
...
About Trafficked with Mariana van Zeller:
TRAFFICKED with Mariana van Zeller is an original documentary series that explores the complex and dangerous inner-workings of the global underworld, black and informal markets. Each adventure follows Mariana on a mission to follow the chain of custody of trafficked goods, understand how to obtain the contraband, or see the 360-degree view of the trafficking world from the point of view of the smugglers, law enforcement and those caught in the crossfire.
Watching this video reminds me that I've been blogging about overfishing since 2013, when I quoted an article about climate change that mentioned overfishing as an additional threat to biodiversity, then quoted another article that detected evidence of it in old restaurant menus from Hawaii. It's been a topic of Earth Overshoot Day and a theme of World Wildlife Day and especially World Oceans Day. Most recently, I included a video about overfishing I show to my students in Whales and fish, two stories I tell my students. Today's entry fits well with my continuing coverage of this threat to the environment and the global food supply, which means it's another video I can recommend to my students along with "Amazon Mafia."

Now for its competition in its two nominated categories.
Outstanding Investigative News Coverage: Long Form FRONTLINE Afghanistan Undercover PBS
FRONTLINE, The Associated Press, SITU Research Crime Scene: Bucha PBS
Caught on Camera, Traced by Phone: The Russian Military Unit That Killed Dozens in Bucha The New York Times
Trafficked with Mariana van Zelle Fish Pirates National Geographic
VICE News Tonight Above the Law: Investigating the Louisville Metro Police Department Vice

All of the nominees except "Above the Law: Investigating the Louisville Metro Police Department" have another nomination, so I can't use that to handicap the category. Both of Frontline's nominees, "Afghanistan Undercover" and "Crime Scene: Bucha," and the New York Times' Caught on Camera, Traced by Phone: The Russian Military Unit That Killed Dozens in Bucha are also nominated for Outstanding Research: News, a category that I expect Trafficked with Mariana van Zeller's "White Supremacy" will win. Normally, I'd forecast based on the lack of other nominations that "Above the Law: Investigating the Louisville Metro Police Department," one of VICE News Tonight's 28 nominations, would be the least likely to win, but the video views say otherwise.

I couldn't locate a single video from VICE News Tonight for "Above the Law: Investigating the Louisville Metro Police Department," instead finding two episodes, Money & Drugs Keep Going Missing After Louisville Police Raids with 6,024,271 views and A Pattern of Sexual Misconduct by Louisville Police with 3,459,445 views. Based on viewership, I'd say this is the favorite, at least if popularity equals quality. The next most viewed is Exposing the Russian Military Unit Behind a Massacre in Bucha | Visual Investigations, which I think is the alternative title for Caught on Camera, Traced by Phone: The Russian Military Unit That Killed Dozens in Bucha, which earned 1,742,946 views as well as winning The 2023 Pulitzer Prize Winner in International Reporting. I think that's Vice News Tonight's main competition. "Fish Pirates" follows with 396,464 views, then the excerpt of Crime Scene: Bucha on Frontline's YouTube channel with 106,123 views, and finally Afghanistan Undercover (full documentary) | FRONTLINE with 63,449 views. I'm glad I looked at the numbers. Otherwise, I feel that I could have gotten my prediction wildly wrong.

Continuing on, here is the other nominated category for "Fish Pirates" as well as one of two nominations for "Cocaine Queens."

Outstanding Writing: News
60 Minutes The Lost Souls of Bucha CBS
60 Minutes Pathogen X CBS
60 Minutes Platform 4 CBS
Fault Lines The Killing of Shireen Abu Akleh Al Jazeera International USA
Trafficked with Mariana van Zeller Cocaine Queens National Geographic
Trafficked with Mariana van Zeller Fish Pirates National Geographic
60 Minutes has three nominated segments, two of which have two nominations, "Pathogen X" in this category and Outstanding Hard News Feature Story: Long Form and "Platform 4" in this category and Outstanding Edited Breaking News Coverage. "Cocaine Queens" also earned a nomination for Outstanding Editing: News. Using page views to break the tie, I'd say "Platform 4" with 700,899 views is in the lead to walk away from the podium with this award.

That concludes today's installment of this series. Return tomorrow as I plan on looking at the remaining nominations for Trafficked with Mariana van Zeller. Stay tuned.

Previous posts about the 2023 News & Documentary Emmy Awards
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