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Sep 29, 2012

"Much of what was said did not matter, and much of what mattered could not be said." --Katherine Boo

Reporting Poverty: Interview with Katherine Boo

While covering poverty and social welfare for the Washington Post in 1993, Katherine Boo was commissioned to write a magazine profile of the new vice president. For most reporters, such an assignment would signal entry into the big leagues. Social issues are regarded as a beat journalists cover until they are deemed important enough to interview politicians, bureaucrats, people of power. "In journalism, if you get to be really hot stuff, that's where you get to go -- to the White House!" Boo told The Guardian. "And that's too bad," she added, "social issues are kind of worthy things that people graduate from." Following three years of research in an Indian slum, the Pulitzer Prize -winning journalist discusses what language can't express, her view that nobody is representative, and the ethical dilemmas of writing about the poor.