Federal law enfforcement reporter Mike Balsamo landed a scoop on a Justice Department two-year investigation into higher education. Balsamo got word through sources that the investigation was completed and had found something attention-grabbing: Yale University was illegally discriminating against Asian American and white applicants, in violation of federal civil rights law. Working with education reporter Collin Binkley, the pair scrambled to move a story that crushed other major news outlets by nearly an hour. Thanks to Binkley’s reporting, the AP was also first to get Yale’s statement on the probe, which it said was “hasty” and unfair.
AP scoop on Justice Department investigation of Yale discrimination
Harkness Tower on the campus of Yale University in New Haven, Conn., Sept. 9, 2016. A Justice Department investigation first reported by AP found that Yale is illegally discriminating against Asian-American and white applications, in violation of federal civil rights law, officials said, Aug. 13, 2020.
AP Photo / Beth J. Harpaz