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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' 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've reported in Flint 17 times since 2016. I've interviewed 100s of residents. I'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's environmental department manipulated water testing data in Flint for several years---the manipulated data was then used to declare Flint's water "restored" https://www.mediaite.com/politics/democratic-lawmakers-and-celebrities-call-for-investigation-after-concerning-flint-water-testing-report/
3) Gov. Rick Snyder and his top advisers knew MUCH EARLIER about the deadly waterborne disease outbreak Legionnaires' 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
4) Gov. Rick Snyder'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's line that Flint'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
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'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
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's environmental & health dpt were communicating on the spreading Legionnaires Disease https://theintercept.com/2021/01/13/flint-michigan-rick-snyder-legionnaires/
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't be bothered with staying on top of a city of poor/minority people POISONED. @StatusCoup will continue covering the ONGOING #FlintWaterCrisis
