The ugly truth behind viral college acceptance reaction videos. An investigation by the NY Times.

Based on the clips included in the video, it was mostly softball outlets/shows like Today, Daily Blast Live and Ellen. These types of programs often focus more on just getting the buzzworthy story before everyone else, and they can't really do journalistic due diligence in that short amount of time like NYTimes did.

Additionally, it's because of the feel good component that nobody really bats an eye. Same reason why nobody thought the couple helping out a homeless man on GoFundMe a few weeks back was a scam, it's feel good news and therefore not subject to the strictness of other stories. Plus, these stories are GOLD ratings and viewership wise. Questioning how good a feel good story is would dampen that effect. For example, I used to report things, many good news stories, and one of the stories I did was about a terminally ill fan wanting to see Rogue One before he died. Turns out, he DID die before they could get the movie to him, but the hospital's letter was so vague, saying they're thankful and all for the fans, but never saying anything definitive about whether he saw the movie that publications just jumped to the conclusion that he DID see the movie. My organization actually did the one basic thing nobody else bothered to do, call the hospital and find out. They didn't confirm that he did see the movie before passing.

Even if people were skeptical, the race factor in this story is a big component. Those news outlets would be afraid of their audiences criticizing them of being racist, or saying things like "Oh, so just because they're black, that means they can't get into a good school without it being questioned, Today/GMA/CBS 6/Detroit Free Press/etc. wouldn't be saying this if it were a white school."

Additionally, on the surface, there isn't really anything that's fraudulent about what they're saying. It is true that they are a school that serves low income students, and it also is true that all of their students have gotten into college, oftentimes at really competitive schools. But if you're a reporter, that 100% acceptance into college thing realllly should throw you off, there's no school, no matter how elite, that can get its kids into top colleges at such an amazing rate. Pllus, wouldn't there also be some kids who take a year off to work/travel abroad/help out with their family or something and don't even bother applying in the first place? That 100% is such an amazing statistic like Bernie Madoff's high returns in his ponzi scheme that people are so enticed by it but they don't even bother to question.

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