"New Harvard Analysis Highlights How Media Failed the People of Flint"

"More than two years have passed since the water crisis in Flint, Michigan hit the national headlines. But the water crisis itself unfolded over three years ago in 2014—not 2015 when the rest of the country found out about it. Residents began complaining in April 2014; they knew something was wrong with their water, though it took some time until they knew it was lead.

National media began covering the issue quite late, argues a paper published today (July 11) by the Harvard University’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy. Local media such as M-Live/The Flint Journal covered it consistently from the beginning, but the same isn’t true for nationally lauded publications. The paper goes as far as to criticize The New York Times’ “parachuting into the crisis.”

The analysis poses the question: Would the situation have turned out differently if national media intervened sooner?"

Yessenia Funes reports for Colorlines July 11, 2017.

SEE ALSO:

"Environmental Justice? Unjust Coverage of the Flint Water Crisis" (Harvard Shorenstein Center)