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DC Fire & EMS Department Chief Dennis Rubin told a radio interviewer on Thursday that a story by Dave Statter “simply isn’t true”. A few hours later Chief Rubin’s own PIO, Alan Etter, confirmed the information was true. So what is this all about?
It involves the Metro crash on June 22 that took the lives of nine people. It also concerns the interaction between the press and government and the flow of information to the public in the first two hours following the crash. Many may think this is trivial compared to the tragedy of that afternoon and the important work of the first responders. I won’t argue with you.
Still, I think it is an important topic. One that we have discussed on STATter911.com following many different incidents, here and around the country.
I apologize ahead of time for this lengthy blog entry. But since it involves questions about the accuracy of what we report, I thought it important for you to get as much information and raw material as possible in order to make your own judgments.
Here are the facts as I know them.
You may recall we ran two items in the days following the crash asking why reporters couldn’t get some basic information from public information officers at the scene of the Red Line collision. Here is the relevant part of that first entry from June 23:
Where are the PIOs?: With a large section of the city shut down, Metro’s Red Line at a standstill, and loved ones desperately looking for information, the city went into an information blackout mode within the first hour of the crisis. While at least one fire department PIO provided initial information in the first minutes, sources within city government tell STATter911.com that word came from Mayor Adrian Fenty’s press office that no more interviews were to be done, or information relayed to reporters until a 7:15 PM press conference by the mayor.
On June 24 we linked to other news organizations, including the Washington Post, where similar questions were being asked.
WTOP Radio investigative reporter Mark Segraves recalled my postings. In the station’s Ask the Chief program on Thursday morning Segraves asked Chief Rubin and Metropolitan Police Chief Cathy Lanier why this occurred.
Chief Rubin replied in part, “We had our public information officers providing as much information from the police department and the fire department as was possible”. He later said, “I don’t think that information ever shut down. At least I am going to say that.”
Mark Segraves brought up my name as one source of the report that there was a news blackout. Segraves said he heard similar stories from other reporters covering the incident. In reply, here is what Chief Rubin said about me:
“But it was no structured design (cutting off information)
. I know Mr. Statter had described that fact and that just simply isn’t true. The other side of it is, though, if we were to shoot from the hip, I think instead of being here today saying why did it take a bit to learn the number of folks, to have some notion as to what occurred here. Instead of that, I think we would be under the gun, why did you give us such inaccurate information?”
“I know there were some comments made about the number of cell telephone calls that were made. I never received a one from Mr. Statter and I know he is the person that’s complaining the most. But I would have to give us a very high mark, that of course is, the mayor’s management consequence team that worked at that event providing accurate timely and effective information”.
You can watch the entire interaction on this topic between Mark Segraves, Chief Rubin and Chief Lanier in the video at the top of this entry.
The crux of my brief story on June 23 was that word came from Mayor Adrian Fenty’s office ordering no further interviews be given prior to the mayor’s press conference.
About five hours after WTOP’s interview on Thursday I contacted Alan Etter, who is leaving his job as the DC Fire & EMS Department PIO on July 10. I asked Etter if my reporting on this issue, as his boss Chief Rubin indicates, is wrong.
Etter confirmed, on the record, that it was accurate. Etter said at about 6:10 PM, 70-minutes after the crash was reported, he received a page from Mayor Adrian Fenty’s press office ordering that he give no further interviews about the collision. According to Etter, the page indicated Mayor Fenty would be speaking at 7:15 PM.
Despite that order, Etter said in some cases, he attempted to keep the information going on background and not for attribution.
In a brief interview after the radio show with 9NEWS NOW photographer Keith Williams (above), Chief Rubin added some other comments. In that interview, Chief Rubin sounded a similar theme, saying, “There were no restrictions or controls placed on the fire and EMS department by anyone”.
In both interviews Chief Rubin made comments about me not contacting him. Hours before running the first item on June 23 I sent an email/page to the chief for comment. Before the entry was posted I also had a number of conversations with Etter and Deputy Chief Kenneth Crosswhite.
Those conversations about the Metro incident have continued with Etter and Crosswhite on almost a daily basis since the crash occurred. On a number of occasions I also talked with Billy Hayes, who currently supervises the public information office. (Note: That position is being taken over by Pete Piringer next week, as Hayes moves to another job within the department.)
At no time during our many conversations over the last 11 days did these three people, who deal with the press for the DC Fire & EMS Department, give any indication what I reported was inaccurate.
Now, armed with the specific information from Alan Etter, I see one error. My timing was slightly off. Etter says the order from the mayor’s press office came, not within the first hour, but just after the first hour.
In the interest of full disclosure, I should tell you I left a message on Chief Rubin’s phone Thursday afternoon expressing my disappointment that the first I heard about claims that my reporting wasn’t truthful was during the live radio interview. As someone who covers the DC Fire & EMS Department on a daily basis, I was curious why no one contacted me or my bosses about this issue. So far I have not heard back from the chief.
There was another part of my reporting on the topic of dealing with the news media immediately after the crash that is not in question. In fact, Police Chief Cathy Lanier provided official confirmation during an interview yesterday. Lanier admits that she gave the order to have the press removed from the New Hampshire Avenue bridge near the crash site primarily because the chief did not want photographers taking pictures of bodies. This happened about 75-minutes into the incident. Chief Lanier stands by her decision.
The police chief also gave indication reporters and photographers on the bridge were in the way of a potential landing site for helicopters and the staging of 40 ambulances. Checking with the 9NEWS NOW crew on the scene at the time, they tell me the helicopters and ambulances did not c
ome to that location. Below is the interview with Chief Lanier.
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