The news coverage was really so bad that skewed actually wasn't a rotten enough word. It was so bad that I don't and won't read a paper, or watch a news program again. The profession of journalism and any claim to ethics or morality by that pack of charlatans is a farce. It was such a cut and dried incident, and the way it was spun by the media was vulgar. If they screw up such a simple story as this, how can they report anything complicated.
The UNLV Rebel Yell (student 'paper') ran an 'op-ed' that basically stated that the Pikes threw him in the lake to kill him. Like some sort of tough love swim lesson.
I'd love to meet that bastard who wrote that, and trust me phenomenal growth aside, Nevada is still a really small state. I'm sure I'll meet that guy somewhere sometime, to his sorrow.
I think the UNR Pikes could probably sue over it, and I am adamantly campaigning for that. But it's up to the alumni who are lawyers since they are the ones doing the work for the chapter for free.
One thing that's bothersome about the punishments being meted out to these guys is that some of them the only thing the school is holding their feet to the fire for is that they went swimming in the lake, which is against the rules. However if you get caught swimming there, and no one happened to die, then it's not even a big deal. I think maybe you get a ticket for trespass from UNPD. And hazing, forget about it, some of the pledges were wearing speedos as a goof, they had no problem with it, and actives did it too. And of course the best guys, the ones in executive positions are seniors and facing the most serious consequences, expulsion or suspension.
One thing that all the other houses on campus did well, was rally around the Pikes, who forgotten in the whole tragedy overshadowed by
NEWS AT ELEVEN! and the investigation, were grieving for this kid, their friend and brother. He was a real solid guy, he'd bring the house gpa up all by himself. An immigrant from the Phillipenes, quiet, studious, athletic. But you could see just one of those guys who's real low key, then bam they get done pledging, initiate in the spring, and by the fall of their sophomore year are like freaking rock stars. But the other houses all had this feeling of "there but for the grace of God go I" as this literally could have happened to any one, since most had done this before.