The investigative team behind Pulse: The Untold Story earned the top prize at the Sunshine State Awards on Sept. 6, winning the inaugural A-Mark Prize for Investigative Reporting.
Pulse: The Untold Story was awarded first place, with reporters Trevor Aaronson and Eleanor Knight receiving $5,000. Their newsroom partners, Audible and Western Sound, received an additional $2,500. Additionally, the ceremony, held at the NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale, recognized dozens of other journalists across Florida for their work in print, digital, television, radio, photography and more.
The eight-part documentary podcast revisits the 2016 Pulse nightclub massacre in Orlando, where 49 people were killed. The series challenges the widely accepted narrative that the attack was a straightforward hate crime against the LGBTQ community. Instead, it probes the FBI’s ties to shooter Omar Mateen and his father, Seddique Mateen.
Seddique Mateen served as an FBI informant for more than a decade prior to the massacre. Meanwhile, his son had twice been investigated as a potential threat but was ultimately cleared — at Seddique’s urging, according to the podcast.
“Had the FBI followed through with those probes, the Pulse shooting may have been prevented,” the series’ press release states.
Eight years later, the FBI has still not released Omar Mateen’s file. The podcast argues that the Bureau “callously allowed homophobic and Islamophobic narratives to flourish in order to cover up its failures.”
“The FBI’s failures to prevent the Pulse shooting reveal systemic problems with the bureau’s informant program and the methods agents employ to investigate potential terrorists,” Aaronson said in a press release. “Omar Mateen took 49 lives on June 12, 2016. As we document in this Audible Original, the FBI had at least two opportunities to stop him before the attack.”
Pulse: The Untold Story is available on Audible.
Below is a Q&A with the reporters behind the series.
What inspired this investigative piece?
For Pulse: The Untold Story, we were inspired by a critical need to challenge the dominant narrative surrounding the Pulse nightclub shooting — a narrative that the FBI and media had cemented in the public consciousness. We saw an opportunity to investigate not only the truth behind Omar Mateen’s motives, but also the systemic failures that allowed the attack to happen. The project sought to honor the victims and survivors with an account grounded in truth, accountability, and journalistic rigor.
What impact has your reporting had so far — on the public, policy, or your newsroom?
The series reshaped public understanding of one of the deadliest mass shootings in American history. It dismantled the myth that the attack was a targeted hate crime driven by Omar Mateen’s internalized homophobia, revealing instead that his choice of Pulse was opportunistic and made at the last minute. This reframing has sparked deeper conversations about how law enforcement and the media construct narratives in the wake of mass violence. The series earned a Peabody Award and was publicly endorsed by GLAAD for raising critical questions about law enforcement accountability. It was also one of the most listened-to Audible Originals of the year.
Were there any unexpected challenges or revelations during the process?
One of the most challenging aspects was confronting the emotional weight of our findings, particularly because they contradicted the beliefs many survivors and LGBTQ community members had held for years. Some had found meaning or closure in the belief that the attack was a targeted hate crime. Reframing that narrative required an extraordinary degree of care, empathy, and ethical consideration. A major revelation involved Omar Mateen’s father’s work as an FBI informant — a fact with profound implications for understanding what led to the Pulse nightclub shooting.
How did your team approach the reporting or storytelling for this entry?
Our approach blended investigative rigor with narrative sensitivity. We logged and cross-referenced hundreds of hours of archival audio — including 911 calls and police recordings — to reconstruct the events of that night in detail. We interviewed survivors, family members, law enforcement officials, and former FBI agents. The storytelling was designed to allow emotional space. For example, Episode 5 — which recreated the night of the mass shooting using real-time recordings and survivor interviews — was structured to be skippable without disrupting the overall narrative, in recognition of the emotional needs of our listeners. Every creative and editorial decision was grounded in truth, care, and accountability.
Why is investigative journalism important to you — especially in today’s climate?
Investigative journalism has never been more essential. In an era when misinformation spreads rapidly and trust in institutions has eroded, investigative reporters play a vital role in uncovering hidden truths and holding power to account. At its best, this work goes beyond headlines: It corrects the historical record, empowers communities with facts, and creates space for justice. With Pulse, we exposed how government narratives can be both convenient and dangerously misleading — shielding powerful agencies from scrutiny and distorting the public’s understanding of tragedy. This work matters more now than ever.
Anything you’d like us to know?
We believe Pulse: The Untold Story represents what investigative journalism can and should be: relentless in its pursuit of truth, compassionate toward its subjects, and unafraid to challenge the powerful. It didn’t just correct the public record — it offered survivors and communities a more honest account of what happened, one rooted not in convenient myths, but in hard-won facts. That was the heart of our work.
