When Daniel Rigby (MSB ‘05) was killed early Sunday morning by a fire in his Georgetown townhouse, the Georgetown community was in disbelief. The most pressing question was how a second accidental death of a student had occurred in 10 days. Unfortunately, the Washington Post’s story on the incident answered this question with lazy reporting and stereotype.
In the first line of the story, titled “GU Student Found Dead in House Fire,” Jerry Markon wrote, “A man in his twenties was found dead yesterday in the basement of a burning rowhouse near the Georgetown University campus where students had held a party the night before, fire officials said.” Mentioning a party in the first line of the story implied that the party was, at most, the cause of the burning house, and, at least, even somewhat related. Neither is true. Officials cited an electrical fire as the cause of the blaze. While the official cause of the fire was a part of Markon’s account of the incident, it was not revealved until the second paragraph. As a result, the reason for the fire is obscured.
A few paragraphs later Markon wrote that firefighters had found evidence of a “big party” held at the house the night before. “There were several kegs of beer. Cups littered all over the place: out on the street, on the sidewalk, inside the building,” D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department spokesman Alan Etter told the Post. Etter’s quote painted quite a scene-one that was completely irrelevant to the cause of the fire. Further, this quote adds to the stereotype that irresponisble student behavior is the cause of student accidents.
The only justification for writing about the party might have been Markon’s claim that Rigby did not live in the house and was spending the night in the basement. Rigby did live in the basement, however, rendering that assertion false. Had Markon spoken to students or University officials, or even closely read the campus-wide e-mail he cited in his article that was sent out Sunday evening, he could have gotten the facts straight.
Student voices did appear at the end of the article. Several students described the “party” at the Prospect St. house as a group of around 20 students gathered to watch the baseball playoffs. Similarly, although students are in the best position to comment on Rigby’s personality, no one’s voice is heard in the article to memorialize his life.
Responsible reporting is a standard we expect from the Post. While the Post has since run more developed and accurate stories on Rigby’s death, it cannot erase the insinuations of the first story. When someone dies, the Post must publish facts, not rumors and one-sided observations. In the case of Rigby’s death, the Post misrepresented the truth.
