That’s the title of a long piece in The Columbia Journalism Review, and it focuses on how crucial radio was in getting the word out about the Flint water situation, which is now a major national news story.
Michigan Radio reported on an Environmental Protection Agency internal memo that laid out the water concerns back in July 2015, tracked each new development as the scope of the problem became clear last fall, and, in December, produced an hour-long documentary that has become one of the leading accounts of the crisis.
For those efforts, Michigan Radio has won applause from listeners and industry peers. The Review says “Michigan Radio has staked a claim for itself as an increasingly important player in the state’s media ecosystem.” Steve Carmody is a reporter for Michigan radio in Flint, the state’s public radio service. Michigan radio was among the earliest news outlets to report seriously on the water crisis. He tells the Review that, during his early reporting, lawmakers were flat out lying to him. “It just gnaws on me that when people were saying they can’t drink this water in May or June of 2014, I was taking, ‘Don’t worry, it’s safe’ as an answer from state officials. It just sticks in my craw. I should’ve seen this earlier. That will bother me for the rest of my career.”
Picture courtesy WCTV.tv
Carmody could cut himself a lot of slack.
Where were all the MIA-newsies who used to work the “community-minded” commercial stations?
Missing and elsewhere.