The Jim Crow Media
And The Rhode Island Spin Begins
February 24, 2003
Within hours of the stampede that killed 21 people at the E2 nightclub in Chicago, television reporters were screaming for the lynching of the club’s owner. More than 24 hours after the fire at The Station nightclub in Rhode Island, that has so far claimed 96 lives, television news coverage had reported everything about the incident except the name of the club’s owners. Why?
The Rhode Island tragedy is of a cause and magnitude that triggers the bloodlust instinct in most television reporters. Tried on TV and executed before the bodies are even cold was good enough for the totally innocent “Olympic Bomber”, Richard Jewel. Who needed any evidence or proof? The media, especially the elite television media, made fast work of destroying this innocent man’s life. In the aftermath of their prejudicial reporting, they have never fully atoned for their sins.
In Chicago, 21 people were trampled to death by fellow patrons after the pepper-spraying of an minor altercation led to a violent exodus. In Rhode Island, 96 patrons died from a flash fire ignited by the pyrotechnics of a Heavy Metal band.
In Chicago, the responsibility for the deaths is shared between (1) a club owner who knowingly was operating with safety code violations, (2) overly exuberant security personnel and (3) the patrons who, themselves, acted irrationally. Pepper spray is not life threatening, but the crowd’s panic was a deadly weapon. In Rhode Island, responsibility for the deaths is shared by all involved except for the patrons. The fire is the product of the band, the club and, perhaps, the municipal authorities. The dead patrons are completely innocent victims.
In Chicago, the club is predominately patronized and owned by blacks. In Rhode Island, both ownership and customers are predominately white.
A self-described businessman owns E2 whereas, The Station in Rhode Island is owned by the two Derderian brothers.
Yet, within hours of the Chicago tragedy, the name of the owner was plastered on every media outlet. A simple Google search within hours of the incident for the terms “E2” and “deaths” yielded over 400 results that clearly identified the name of E2’s owner and beat the drum for his figurative lynching. A similar Google search, again within hours of the incident, using “The Station”, “owner”, “fire”, “Rhode Island” and “deaths” was hard-pressed to yield anything about the club’s owner and nothing calling for his lynching. Unlike the Chicago incident, it wasn’t until almost 24 hours had passed that the name of the Rhode Island club’s ownership was even whispered.
To the contrary, media outlets are in the early stages of their Rhode Island spin, “As club owners, Derderian and his brother were described by musicians as ‘worry warts’ obsessed with safety.” Derderian happens to be a local Rhode Island television personality who made his career, “as an aggressive breaking news reporter for WHDH-TV (Ch. 7).”
Even more ironic is the fact that Derderian was filming a report on nightclub safety, in the Chicago aftermath, at his Rhode Island club the night of the fire. His cameraman kept rolling as flames spread and people died. The next 24 hours of television coverage centered on interviews with the cameraman and no mention was made of Derderian’s ownership or existence, let alone his presence that deadly night.
The newspaper coverage of the Rhode Island incident that mentions Derderian’s name (buried at near the bottom of the story), all repeats the same theme, “ The club was last inspected two months ago as part of its liquor-license renewal process, according to the local fire chief. Some minor violations were discovered during the inspection, but they were rectified.” Technically, this will, if the truth be told, turn out not to be true. But, see no evil, speak no evil.
According to initial expert opinion, the type of sound insulation that was used around the stage at The Station was polyurethane. Polyurethane lacks the flame-retardant qualities of the safety approved foam, melamine, and is not fire code approved for use in public venues. “The minute I saw it, I knew it was poly. That should not have been used in there.” If it indeed was polyurethane insulation, its openly exposed use on a stage is a violation fire safety codes. Also victims who survived have reported a lack of fire extinguishers and a failure of safety lighting. The band lit the match and the club supplied the fuel.
Fortunately, it appears that race plays no role in the disparate treatment by the elite media of the Chicago versus the Rhode Island tragedies. But, by initial appearances, it seems that fraternity is certainly alive and well. A Chicago businessman is transformed into a monster by a headhunting media while a Rhode Island television reporter is swaddled in “victim status” by his industry brethren.
This writer is calling for nobody’s head. The first and foremost concerns of these tragedies are the victims and their families. But there should be equity in reporting. If the elite media can immediately go on witch-hunts in one instance and “gloss over” a story a week later in a more tragic situation, the result is hypocrisy.
It is amazing how the press is allowing this tragedy to turn into a finger-pointing contest between the band and the club’s ownership. Whether or not the band asked for, and was granted, permission to use pyrotechnics from the club’s ownership is just a smoke screen. If it’s not in writing, it can never be proved. The facts that are known is that (1) there was no permit for the pyrotechnics, (2) that something, probably the polyurethane insulation, burned rapidly and spewed a thick black debilitating smoke, (3) nobody could seem to find a fire extinguisher and (4) the level of emergency exit lighting was inadequate and useless.
Mr. Derderian’s contrition is nice and plays well on television but accountability, based on facts, is what the victims need. To let this tragedy degenerate into a trial judged on telegenic spin is good entertainment and bad journalism. That club was an inferno waiting to happen and the band’s sparklers were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. It could just as easily have been a cigarette errantly tossed into a wastebasket on another day.
Mr. Derderian and the municipal authorities can live up to their own standards with some answers on emergency lighting, the lack of fire extinguishers and the type of insulation which all made a bad situation into a Rhode Island nightmare. But first, the elite media has to bypass the fluff and arrive at accountability…even if that means eating one of their own.
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