What Clean Water Act? Industrial pollution blooms
Outstanding job by the New York Times' Charles Duhigg in investigating thousands of violations of the Clean Water Act and the illnesses they are causing across the country. Corporations are fouling drinking water with impunity, regulators and politicians are clueless and people are getting sick.
Yes, we need to belabor this oft-made point once again: Without newspapers, this sort of information just doesn't come out. Without newspapers, there is little public pressure to fix things. Without newspapers, the problem gets worse. True, victims can resort to the justice system, as they did in West Virginia. But too often the courts award compensation for damages without making sure new damages won't take place. And they are slow, slow slow.
Love this response from West Virginia state officials, whose own files contain unbelievable cases of industrial pollution that they have done nothing about.
“Many of the issues you are examining are several years old, and many have been addressed,” West Virginia officials wrote in a statement. The state’s pollution program “has had its share of issues,” regulators wrote. However, “it is important to note that if the close scrutiny given to our state had been given to others, it is likely that similar issues would have been found.”
They'll soon change their tune, thanks to the New York Times. Thank you, Mr. Duhigg.
Comments
Jay,
Any source that publishes truth, whether it be newspaper, TV, radio, or internet serves the social good. Deemed so important the first amendment protects this right, although not as well as it once did thanks to McCain Feingold.
If your newspaper and the New York Times were as interested in keeping Democrats (and Acorn) honest as they are in reporting Republican scandals perhaps more consumers would subscribe to the papers and the business outlooks would be a little brighter.
Posted by: Dan | September 12, 2009 9:55 PM
Actually, the power of new media--things like Twitter--shows have dated and worthless newspapers have become. Complaints of corporate malfeasance and the dangers of bad PR bring responses and real change in hours, not years.
There's nothing inherently wrong with the field of journalism, issue is that most newspapers are little more than Ivy Leaguers rewriting press releases in a less-than-timely fashion, and the public is turning away in droves.
Posted by: dmoynihan | September 13, 2009 5:14 AM
Jay,
I believe Ed Driscoll hits the name on the head with his comments:
http://pajamasmedia.com/eddriscoll/2009/09/13/twas-accountability-that-killed-the-msm/
The Dinosaur Media is losing money, viewers and readers hand over fist. The reason they’re folding or on life support isn’t because there aren’t enough left-of-center Americans to keep them in business, it’s because, like everyone else, liberals don’t want to sit in a choir and be preached to. They want information. They want to know what’s going on in the world.
Our liberal friends may not like hearing Van Jones, the NEA and ACORN are under fire, but they still want to know. What a disappointing revelation it must be to open the New York Times or turn on the network news only to discover after the curtain has already fallen that one of Obama’s Czars was forced to resign or that the U.S. Census Bureau let ACORN go.
The liberal media is failing for the exact same reason a dozen-plus anti-war films flopped: propaganda is dull. No matter your politics, people want stimulation and information, not affirmation.
Posted by: Dan | September 14, 2009 8:28 AM