MARC CHOQUETTE
Online Content Manager
While Malibu’s “Canyon Fire” was already in full swing, it was a strange feeling watching the famed Castle Kashan go up in flames on national television while I sat in my San Diego living room sipping orange juice.
The cable news networks such as MSNBC and Fox News were eating up the inferno faster than the flames were eating up the chaparral. Choppers hovered incessantly over spots like the Hughes Laboratory and Malibu Presbyterian Church, occasionally panning out to show the smoke billowing down the hillside to the Pacific.
Trouble in paradise, indeed. As many of us who have lived in Malibu for a few years know, whenever something the least bit newsworthy happens here, the press multiplies it astronomically, especially considering our dense celebrity population.
Google News, which tracks 4,500 news services, counted more than 2,000 news stories that included “Pepperdine” at the height of the fire’s coverage. Here are some of the highlights:
Seniors Michael Richards, Emily Rath and Jordan Homan were at the Malibu Beach Club early that Sunday watching the fire ravage the hillside above them, only yards behind the McDonalds on PCH. Wearing handkerchiefs covering their mouths, photographers snapped them shielding themselves from the thick smoke.
The next day, the three awoke to realize that photo made the print version of The New York Times, Time Magazine and the online version of the BBC. Soon thereafter, calls were pouring in from long lost friends making sure they were OK.
Also on the front page of the BBC News Web site was a photo of the “Bungalow,” a rather infamous (depending on your views) hangout of the former Sigma Nu fraternity next to Malibu Glass & Mirror, going up in flames.
Even local papers from every corner of the globe were finding Pepperdine students from their area to interview. Freshmen Jessica Rowe and Courtney Schneck, by way of Long Island, were featured in their local publication Newsday, talking about the evacuation process.
Junior Amanda Gordon covered the fire for the Whidbey News-Times near her hometown of Oak Harbor, Wash., passing along word to readers that the five Oak Harbor High students mentioned who are currently at Pepperdine were OK.
Pepperdine’s IT staff even got their accolades from the Massachusetts-based publication Computerworld. With brush fires within 100 feet of the school’s massive data bank, the article praised the staff for their planning and quick thinking.
But school spokesperson Jerry Derloshon had perhaps the most daunting task outside of fighting the fire: talking to a million or so reporters itching for information about what was happening inside of our fortress on lockdown.
Despite that, many news organizations had little idea of what was happening here, besides the fact that students received masks and were “evacuated” (failing to mention we were still on campus).
More information did not arrive till later that day, partly because our own school newspaper’s Web site (graphic.pepperdine.edu) was shut down for a few hours. Pepperdine apologized to the staff, calling it a mistake, but it was enough to stir up some controversy.
The magazine Editor & Publisher interviewed Graphic Editor in Chief Shannon Kelly and Director of Strategic Planning Chris Segal, with the latter expressing his desire for the Graphic to have their own server in case another disaster strikes and coverage is needed.
What the media’s coverage of the Canyon Fire did tell the outsider, however, was that Pepperdine was very prepared for what hit them. There was no talk of panic or indecisiveness, nobody was hurt and no structures were lost. The entire community should be proud of how we handled the situation.
11-01-2007