🧵FYI this is the time, after 2 weeks of coverage, when mainstream media moves off of a catastrophic story like #EastPalestineOH—when the cameras leave & coverage shifts from hourly/daily to occasional updates to abandon the story altogether. This happened w/ #FlintWaterCrisis.
Mainstream media outlets typically only care when they deem an URGENCY to a catastrophe—when it's new and the flames, or poison water, or adverse health symptoms seem most dire. In my experience, once they predictably stop covering and caring, is when the REAL coverup begins...
That coverup is a mixture of government, media, and in the case of East Palestine, the corporate (Norfolk Southern), pushing forward flawed testing in order to provide the "all clear" sign and sweep things under the rug. The void of media coverage—particularly ON-THE-GROUND...
provides a false & dangerous sense of security and closure to a story--giving people and news consumers the false impression that the story is resolved or things have gotten better in East Palestine (or Flint). Meanwhile, residents continue to get sicker, medical bills PILE UP...
they continually get spurned by national and even local news outlets who stop covering the story or water down coverage significantly when they do cover it—typically toeing the EPA/state environmental department/corporate line that everything is "improving" and just dandy...
Making matters worse—and easier for the mainstream media to move on—is the presidential campaign season heating up with national outlets already fixating and speculating on the GOP 2024 horse race and whether Biden will or won't run (and if anyone will primary him). In 2016...
coverage of the #FlintWaterCrisis fell out of the news as media pivoted back to covering Trump's tweets 24/7—at a great disservice to Flint residents who were left to fend for themselves as then Gov. Rick Snyder's admin, with the help of a lazy media, executed a massive coverup..
The void left by mainstream media abandoning #EastPalestineOH has to be filled by INDEPENDENT MEDIA. As someone who has frustratingly tried to keep the ONGOING #FlintWaterCrisis in the news for 6 years, this won't be easy. But @StatusCoup will continue to cover & investigate...
@StatusCoup this story when it is NO LONGER TRENDING and when it is no longer in the news. We will continue speaking with residents on and off camera to find out what's actually happening ON-THE-GROUND and distinguish between fact vs fiction...
@StatusCoup If you can chip in $5-10 bucks a month to help us fund REPEATED ON-THE-GROUND reporting trips to #EastPalestineOH, please join Status Coup as a MEMBER: Â StatusCoup.com/Join 
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
　
