Sunday, March 9, 2008

Digging deeper: Getting the real story behind Rice's departure


The Hatchet reported this week that senior Maureece Rice was kicked off the GW men's basketball team:
"In a news release sent to members of the media shortly before the Colonials faced Charlotte in North Carolina Thursday evening, men's basketball coach Karl Hobbs said the 6-foot-1 Philadelphia native was dismissed for failing to adhere to team rules."
While, I'm sad to see Rice go- that's not why I'm writing this post. I'm disappointed in the Hatchet's coverage of his departure from the team. Shooting guard Rice was a star player last season and this getting booted from the team is big news.

But the Hatchet didn't treat it as such, failing to expend the extra effort to actually go out into the campus community and get to the real story.

Instead, sports editor Joanna Shapes dropped in a few quotes from university officials tight-lipped on the issue. Good journalism requires more than reporting the "official story." If the Hatchet wants to be taken seriously and serve as the narrative of our campus, I say they hit the streets and start digging a little deeper.

Everything I read in Shapes' story could be gleaned from the University's press release. Next time such a big story breaks I'd like to see the Hatchet do some investigative digging.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Yeah! Not enough life-ruining in the Hatchet these days.