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THREAD: On the 7th anniversary of the disastrous Flint River switch, Flint STILL does not have clean water, #MedicareForAll for its citizens, all of its lead service lines replaced, residents& #39; damaged interior plumbing fixed, & no state or city government official is in prison...
The #FlintWaterCrisis is a story w/ a lot of layers: environmental racism, water privatization gone horrifically wrong, greed, corruption, etc....but it is as much a story of national and local mainstream media completely abdicating its responsibility to cover and INVESTIGATE...
With MUCH LESS resources than larger outlets, I& #39;ve reported in Flint 17 times since 2016. I& #39;ve interviewed 100s of residents. I& #39;ve dug through 1000s of documents. In this time, I, along w/ @JennElizabethJ, uncovered:
1) Gov. Rick Snyder was involved with massive cover-up...
1) Gov. Rick Snyder was involved with massive cover-up...
2) Gov. Rick Snyder& #39;s environmental department manipulated water testing data in Flint for several years---the manipulated data was then used to declare Flint& #39;s water "restored" https://www.mediaite.com/politics/democratic-lawmakers-and-celebrities-call-for-investigation-after-concerning-flint-water-testing-report/">https://www.mediaite.com/politics/...
3) Gov. Rick Snyder and his top advisers knew MUCH EARLIER about the deadly waterborne disease outbreak Legionnaires& #39; Disease--and worked to stop news of the outbreak from going public. https://www.vice.com/en/article/z3bdp9/michigans-ex-gov-rick-snyder-knew-about-flints-toxic-waterand-lied-about-it">https://www.vice.com/en/articl...
4) Gov. Rick Snyder& #39;s top adviser & right-hand man, Rich Baird, offered sick Flint residents payoffs--state-funded medical care and other forms of reward in exchange for their silence and toeing the administration& #39;s line that Flint& #39;s water was safe again https://www.metrotimes.com/news-hits/archives/2020/04/23/exclusive-audio-shows-governor-rick-snyders-fixer-lied-about-warnings-snyder-and-his-administration-received-on-toxic-flint-water-attem">https://www.metrotimes.com/news-hits...
5) MI AG Dana Nessel-who dropped key charges against certain state and city defendants and whose team charged Gov. Snyder with a misdemeanor-has a communications director who did crisis PR/damage control for Snyder& #39;s administration during the water crisis https://www.metrotimes.com/news-hits/archives/2020/04/29/attorney-general-dana-nessels-flint-water-wall-dividing-criminal-and-civil-cases-may-have-some-cracks">https://www.metrotimes.com/news-hits...
6) We obtained phone calls b/w Snyder, his chief of staff, & state health director from Oct 2014 that show an avalanche of calls web b/w the 3 at SAME EXACT TIME Snyder& #39;s environmental & health dpt were communicating on the spreading Legionnaires Disease https://theintercept.com/2021/01/13/flint-michigan-rick-snyder-legionnaires/">https://theintercept.com/2021/01/1...
ALL of these important investigative stories--some of which have smoking gun evidence that was used by criminal prosecutors to charge state officials--was PASSED ON by Detroit @freep @detroitnews @flintjournal @nytimes @washingtonpost @NBCNews @ABC @CBSNews @thedailybeast...
. @BuzzFeedNews @TheAtlantic @MotherJones @Newsweek @AP_Politics and many other national media outlets we pitched with the reporting already done. I will write a book/do documentary one day on the ABSURD rationalizations from media editors for passing when the reality is...
They came and covered the story on the ground for about 2 weeks & then decided the Trump show was the real money-maker, so they couldn& #39;t be bothered with staying on top of a city of poor/minority people POISONED. @StatusCoup will continue covering the ONGOING #FlintWaterCrisis
