Villanova won the national championship in basketball last night in an extremely exciting match against North Carolina. The game winning shot actually passed through the hoop just after time ran out. The Villanova fans had every right to be excited. Nevertheless, I was surprised this morning to see the headlines blaring that there had been arrests and injuries in a riot by the Villanova fans on their campus. I know that area very well, having grown up just a few miles down the road from Villanova. The headline really surprised me.
Of course, I went to read the articles reporting on the "rioting". It turns out that after the victory, hundreds or thousands of students who had been watching the game on a live feed in the Pavilion on campus came outside and were cheering, dancing, screaming and otherwise celebrating up and down the avenues. Some students climbed up on light poles. There was, however, no rioting. Nothing was looted; nothing was destroyed. All that happened was a major celebration. About twenty revelers suffered minor injuries according to local police, but none required hospital treatment. There were a few arrests of especially rowdy college kids.
So why must the story report "rioting" on the Villanova campus when there were no riots? Can't they just say "celebrations"?
Of course, I went to read the articles reporting on the "rioting". It turns out that after the victory, hundreds or thousands of students who had been watching the game on a live feed in the Pavilion on campus came outside and were cheering, dancing, screaming and otherwise celebrating up and down the avenues. Some students climbed up on light poles. There was, however, no rioting. Nothing was looted; nothing was destroyed. All that happened was a major celebration. About twenty revelers suffered minor injuries according to local police, but none required hospital treatment. There were a few arrests of especially rowdy college kids.
So why must the story report "rioting" on the Villanova campus when there were no riots? Can't they just say "celebrations"?
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