Harvard Analysis Highlights How White Media Failed the People of Flint

ColorLines

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?

It specifically states:

Sustained and widespread media attention was not given until late 2015 and early 2016, when the state of Michigan and President [Barack] Obama declared an emergency over high levels of lead in the water and in the blood of thousands of children. Additionally, the nature of some of the coverage was problematic: Complaints of citizens were discounted when compared to the comments of officials, residents were portrayed as hopeless and downtrodden despite months of action, and narratives of “heroes” excluded African American activists in a city that is 57 percent black.

Here, three major points the paper makes on the media, its role in the water crisis that poisoned Flint residents—and on environmental justice, as a whole. 

National media trusted officials over residents.

In Flint, the conflict started out as a he-said, she-said debate. Residents complained their water was contaminated, that it smelled and looked odd. Government officials, on the other hand, stood firm that the water was safe.

In July 2015, before either the state or federal government declared the situation a state of emergency, the city issued a water quality update to residents. The water system had violated the Safe Drinking Water Act for excess amounts of trihalomethanes, a dangerous compound that could lead to liver and kidney disease, yet the city still tried to reassure residents everything was OK: “This is not an emergency. If it had been an emergency, you would have been notified within 24 hours.” [MORE]