Award-Winning Visual Journalist Tom Costello Describes Covering the “Trump Insurrection” on SBN Newsmakers Show

In an interview with NJ-SPJ board member Steve Lubetkin of State Broadcast News, award-winning photojournalist Thomas P. Costello describes his experience covering the “Trump Insurrection” Jan. 6, in which supporters of President Donald Trump, incited by Trump and other speeches, stormed the US Capitol Jan. 6 in the first sacking of the building since the British attacked the structure in 1814.

Costello was at the Capitol livestreaming video for the USA Today Network, and captured memorable images of the crowd attacking the legislative branch of the US government.

Watch Steve’s interview with Costello in the player below:

About the Guest

Thomas P. Costello, Asbury Park Press Staff Photographer 02/09/2011

Tom Costello has been a staff photographer at the Asbury Park Press since 1988. His career started with daily news coverage using black and white film, transitioning to an early adopter of digital imaging and web video, to currently using a video camera as a primary storytelling tool. Tom is also an FAA licensed and flight certified as a drone pilot and his drone images have provided striking photojournalism for the Press and the other Gannett/USA Today publications.

The photojournalism bug bit Tom when he started shooting for his high school newspaper and yearbook. When he went to Rutgers his second home there was in the darkroom at the Daily Targum. This also gave him a base to start freelancing for the Associated Press, The Star-Ledger, Home News, Courier-News and the school’s Sports Information Department. While taking classes towards his Journalism degree, he worked an overnight shift on the General Desk at the Associated Press in New York City.

For more than 25 years he has served as the Production Chairman for the National Press Photographer’s Association (NPPA) Northern Short Course in Photojournalism, an annual educational program.

He is a life member of the NPPA and the New Jersey Press Photographers, as well as an Associate Member of the White House News Photographers Association. Tom was part of a team at the Asbury Park Press that was honored as a Pulitzer Prize finalist for their work on the “Tax Crush” series. Last year, he produced videos that were part of the paper’s winning entry in the National Edward R. Murrow Awards. He is a two-time winner of the New Jersey Press Association’s “Innovation” award for video coverage of high school football.