After the city began using the Flint River as a drinking water supply in 2014, the incidence of elevated blood lead levels among Flint children under age 5 nearly doubled from 2.1 percent to 4 percent, according to research led by Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha at the Hurley Medical Center and released in September of last year.
Rachel Maddow’s Flint Town Hall Was Television Journalism At Its Finest
Rachel Maddow put on a display of what cable news is truly capable of with a fantastic town hall discussion about the water crisis in Flint, Michigan.
Maddow’s town hall was the anti-cable news. There were no raging talking heads placing political blame. Instead, there was a master plumber describing in detail the cost and effort that it will take to replace all of the lead pipes in the city.
(Total cost for each home roughly $10,000, and there are 30,000 homes in Flint.)
The town hall was not a political blame game, or an emotional plea for help.
In true Maddow fashion, the discussion from Flint was focused on the crisis and how it can be fixed. For instance, the doctor who discovered the elevated blood levels in the children of Flint, Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, discussed the resources that these kids may need and how the parents and the community can come together to give the kids that were exposed the best possible outcomes.
Rachel Maddow’s town hall featured the best experts on the Flint crisis talking about what has happened and what needs to be done.
It was telling that Gov. Rick Snyder was asked to appear at the town hall, but he never responded to Maddow’s invitation.
Maddow reminded viewers that thanks to Gov. Snyder’s city manager in Flint, the responsibility for the poisoning of a city rested with the governor and state officials, not the local politicians. Obviously, Rick Snyder knew that his bogus and untruthful buck passing to the people of Flint would not hold up under questioning, so he avoided Rachel Maddow at all costs.
It Is What It Is 