T-Squared: “God and Governing” Wins a National Murrow Award

We were already proud of “God and Governing,” our five-part documentary series on how Texas legislators’ faith drives their decision-making. Now we have a terrific honor to back it up.

The Texas Tribune has won a national Edward R. Murrow Award for the video news series — our ninth such honor from the Radio Television Digital News Association in the six years since the Trib’s inception.

Our reporters, researchers and videographers spent six months in 2015 interviewing dozens of elected officials on camera and scouring hundreds of hours of legislative footage, producing multimedia packages on everything from abortion and gun rights to same-sex marriage and abstinence-only education. A related 30-minute news documentary — produced for KLRU, Austin's PBS station — was distributed nationally and aired repeatedly on nine public television stations statewide. You can watch it here. 

We followed that up with a “God & Governing” forum at the LBJ Presidential Library in Austin; the event, which featured four lawmakers discussing the role of faith in the Texas Legislature, was sold out, livestreamed and recorded. 

“God and Governing” was an ambitious multimedia and television undertaking we tackled with respect and our signature tough reporting. The result was a living archive of a fascinating time in the state’s political history, and we’re honored that the Murrow judges took notice.