Area Man Dies: Local Media Lacks in Reporting

On my way to Clarendon day today, I was passing the Court House metro station. It was swarmed with county police, Metro police, fire trucks, and ambulances. I knew in my head that something was wrong, seriously wrong. This wasn’t a case of someone jumping a turnstile or a fist fight breaking out in the station. My thoughts raced through the possible (if far-flung) terror scenarios. I am not a paranoid or jittery person, but there is no denying that DC and its environs (the Pentagon is in Arlington, remember) are under some level of threat every day. For instance, I work in DC and my building requires biochemical attack contingencies, just like a fire drill.

The uncertainty of the situation was worsened when I came home for the night, late into the evening. there was no coverage of the Court House event on the local television news broadcast. Mostly spotty coverage of the Gallaudet protests and a story on local shootings. Where was the coverage of this incident? What had happened? Is it being kept a secret?

Unfortunately, it is no secret but is hidden by shotty reporting. Here is the story from the website of NBC4, the station where I catch my local nes (when I don’t checl Google News, DCist, backfence….):

A man was struck and killed by an Orange line metro train in Arlington, Metro officials said.

It happened at the Court House metro station at the corner of Wilson Boulevard and Uhle Street Saturday afternoon.

Metro officials said the man intentionally jumped in front of an oncoming train.

Trains shared one track between Court House and the Foggy Bottom station while investigators processed the scene.

Service is back to normal.

That’s it? That’s the story? Not only did the police shut down pedestrian traffic across thee blocks (unreported) but the man who jumped in front of the train is unnamed, undescribed, and altogether meaningless and anonymous?

This is ridiculous, especially for a local news team. Even worse, the news team that has its office and reporting headquarters just down the street is not even showing that any events took place a all. This demonstrated, to a T, the kind of sluggish behavior from established media outlets that will stifile them in the coming years.