Seven years ago, after a nationwide slew of social media hype and frothy media coverage about deeply impoverished kids from Louisiana getting into Ivy League colleges, the New York Times’ Katie Benner and Erica L. Green revealed that their courses, transcripts, and essays — but not their ACT scores — had been faked, and that the unregulated private school they’d attended had manipulated them and their parents even as some kids were being subject to physical abuse.
This week, Benner and Green’s book about what happened is out, and I had the chance to talk with Benner about what she and Green learned in turning the investigation into a book.
To me, the Landry story seems full of obvious holes that journalists should have checked out. (Ask a kid to say something in Mandarin, for example.)
Banner’s take is that there were no obvious incongruities between what the kids, the school, and the colleges were saying. She does, however, urge journalists to ask hard questions even when doing so can feel extremely uncomfortable.
Watch the interview above (or on YouTube), listen to it on Spotify or Apple, or read the unedited transcript.
Previously from The Grade
New York Times story exposes school fraud and media credulity
What makes New York Times education reporter Erica Green so good?
