Coping with Fake News and Disinformation by Devlin Smith

Author:Devlin Smith [Smith, Devlin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc
Published: 2018-12-27T00:00:00+00:00

Los Angeles Times reporters Jeff Gottlieb (left) and Ruben Vives (right) celebrate their Pulitzer Prize win for coverage of government corruption in a small Southern California city.

The Times reports and state investigations revealed the level of corruption in Bell. City council members earned extra money by serving on agency boards that would meet for just one minute. Taxes were raised to cover the city manager’s high salary. The city manager and other city officials would later be convicted of corruption. Gottlieb and Vives were awarded the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for public service for this coverage.

Making a Difference on Campus

As they were preparing an article on their new principal, six student reporters at Pittsburgh High School in Pittsburgh, Kansas, discovered some inconsistencies with the administrator’s credentials. Through two interviews with the incoming principal, Amy Robertson, and three weeks of research, the reporters, who became known as the “Pitt 6”—Gina Mathew, Kali Poenitske, Maddie Baden, Trina Paul, Pat Sullivan, and Connor Balthozar—raised enough doubts about Robertson’s qualifications that she resigned the principal position before she started.

The article, “District Hires New Principal,” was printed in the Booster Redux on March 31, 2017, and provided details on Robertson’s educational background. When interviewed by the students, Robertson said she had earned a bachelor of fine arts degree in theater from the University of Tulsa. The students contacted the University of Tulsa registrar’s office and learned that the university never offered a bachelor of fine arts degree, only a bachelor of arts. The students also found that the university where Robertson received her master’s and doctoral degrees was not accredited with the US Department of Education.

Of their discoveries, Balthozar is quoted in Samantha Schmidt’s article for the Washington Post as saying: “All of this was completely overlooked. All of the shining reviews did not have these crucial pieces of information … you would expect your authority figures to find this.” Four days after the article’s publication, Robertson’s resignation was announced at a school board meeting.

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