This column is part of the Indianapolis Public Editor project , a pilot program designed to test whether the presence of a public editor who analyzes local coverage can elevate audience trust in journalism and promote media literacy.

Last year, Indianapolis parents were bombarded with text messages sharing a video that was critical of the superintendent. An unknown source had deceptively edited videos of public comments at school board meetings to criticize school leadership at a time when IPS was making its case for more funding at the state legislature.

That raised red flags for Mirror Indy K-12 education reporter Carley Lanich. She set out to hunt down the source of the text messages and debunk what appeared to be a disinformation campaign aimed at undermining the superintendent.

At the end of her reporting, Lanich was unable to expose who sent the deceptive messages.…