Jordan Chariton Reports — Twilight Zone: When Omarosa Knows More About Flint’s Water Than Actual Journalists

Jordan Chariton
Aug 16, 2018 · 5 min read
Image for post
Image for post

I tuned out all things Omarosa’s Revenge for the last week because a reality-TV huckster finally finding Jesus and decrying Donald Trump is exactly the type of carnival show nonsense our corporate media seizes on at the expense of real news the collective #FreePress is too lazy or uninterested in covering.

I was immediately weary as endless clips of Omarosa interviews swallowed the airwaves and Internet. After all, she clearly knew Trump was exactly who she’s now saying he is all along — and conveniently ignored it for her own self-aggrandizement and political elbow rubbing.

Which is why I’m not entirely sure why I hate-watched the former Apprentice-contestant-turned-Trump-advisor on The Daily Show, except that it takes real chutzpah to do a tour like this after all of that. Not much surprises me in media these days, but I have to say that Omarosa pulled it off. She spent part of the interview educating Trevor Noah (who, by the way, is a TERRIBLE host) about the fact that Flint’s water is still not clean — 1,574 days after the toxic switch to the Flint River.

Image for post
Image for post

“We said we would help the people of Flint to get clean water, and as we know, there’s still no clean water there,” Omarosa said to Noah on The Daily Show.

Noah’s response? A twisted pretzel of some nonsense to the tune of, “Well, from what I hear from the same government officials that lied about Flint’s water being clean in the first place, the water is now just dandy in Flint.”

Two things about that. First, Noah didn’t seem to mean any malice, but the damage is all the same as he just regurgitated things he read about the lead water levels in Flint now meeting EPA regulations. Second, Trevor Noah is in NO WAY a journalist. Frankly, he’s not even a funny comedian. But people take his word as if he’s the former.

“If you still have to boil your water, it’s not acceptable in this country, it’s not acceptable if there’s still brown water coming out of spigots— we should’ve done better,” Omarosa responded.

Ouch, grrr, Ouch again...I’m forced to say it. #OmarosaIsRight (except, it’s important to note that you shouldn’t boil lead-laden water as it can make the problems worse).

Now, the main issue here isn’t a recovering huckster like Omarosa knowing more than a comedian who’s the wrong fit for the politics genre anyways. The bigger picture: Omarosa spoke truth that none of our out-of-touch, corporate media will report!

If you read the majority of corporate media headlines about Flint, they read like EPA and Rick Snyder press releases: the lead levels in Flint are now at levels no different than other cities — a common talking point of officials trying to move on from helping Flint — and the crisis is over.

Except, it’s not. People are still getting sick and dying because Flint still doesn’t have clean water.

Have any of the journalists regurgitating these headlines — fed to them by the very environmental agencies that lied in the first place about there being no problem with Flint’s water — been to Flint recently? Have they tasted the water? Have they spoke with residents drawing brown water from their taps or suffering from its rotten smell? Have they seen the fresh rashes and blisters on adults AND LITTLE CHILDREN AND TINY BABIES from bathing in the water? Have they reported from the three to five hour lines for bottled water wrapped around for blocks at local churches?

No, no, no, and hell no. I have. I’ve been to Flint three times in recent months and 12 times overall since August, 2016. When I say the water is not clean, that’s a declaration coming from hundreds of interviews and conversations: with water experts, plumbers, politicians, and residents.

That comes from tasting the water myself recently. That comes from looking at common sense: three-quarters of the totally destroyed lead pipes are still in the ground having water delivered through them. Not to mention that a lot of the water is stagnant since people are dying, moving away, getting their water shut off (which is a whole ‘nother post), and just generally not moving as the system was built for 300,000 people and there are now under 100,000 residents.

My declarations and knowledge also comes from exhaustive research: looking into claims of Flint’s water being normal based on a laughable sample size of homes tested along with inadequate records as to whether the homes being tested even had lead service lines.

I mean, just recently, crews uncovered there were 14,000 busted service lines still underground—15 percent more than previously thought.

My declarations come from recently knocking on over 400 doors in Flint to uncover that the state of Michigan improperly sampled for lead in the water in dozens of homes…stay tuned for that report along with a special documentary on our reporting (for more, go to JordanChariton.com).

Yet, Trevor Noah, and the journalists he apparently read, simply paint a false brush over Flint, declaring the water safe based on, well, gee, umm…what environmental and government officials who’ve repeatedly lied about the water quality in Flint tell them.

This is dangerous, not just for Flint, but the wider public that’s seeing water contamination pop up across the country.

When “journalists”—who spend 95 percent of their time reporting on what President Trump tweets, who he’s offended, the great Russian boogeyman, and political horse-race bullshit that has no measurable affect on real people’s lives—don’t exert the energy, or demand their outlets with resources send them to places like Flint to find out the truth for themselves, they simply become stenographers for dangerous public officials whose marching orders are to simply make the problem go away.

No matter whether it actually has been solved or not.

In the end, when unserious reality stars reveal greater truths than the American media, you know the public’s right to know—and more importantly, Flint residents—is in grave danger.

That’s why I will continue reporting the truth on Flint and won’t stop shouting what’s really going on from the mountaintops. Flint still doesn’t have clean water (and maybe Michelle Wolf should get that The Daily Show spot instead).

Welcome to a place where words matter. On Medium, smart voices and original ideas take center stage - with no ads in sight. Watch

Follow all the topics you care about, and we’ll deliver the best stories for you to your homepage and inbox. Explore

Get unlimited access to the best stories on Medium — and support writers while you’re at it. Just $5/month. Upgrade

Get the Medium app

A button that says 'Download on the App Store', and if clicked it will lead you to the iOS App store
A button that says 'Get it on, Google Play', and if clicked it will lead you to the Google Play store